On Compensation of the Impact of the Development of Information and Communication Technologies on Cognitive Functions

Gelman Viktor Doctor of Technical Science Professor, Department of Medical Informatics and Physics, North-Western State Medical University named after I. I. Mechnikov 191015, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Kirochnaya str., 41 gelm@sg2104.spb.edu Other publications by this author

Introduction

In recent decades, serious structural shifts have been taking place in the world due to new phases of technological progress and opening up new opportunities for human activity. With the development of technology, not only a lot of places directly related to computers, robots and artificial intelligence appear on the labor market, but also in everyday life everyone has to deal with these technologies and devices. So people need to learn to interact with them in the same way they had to learn to interact with phones, cars and other new devices and mechanisms.

In the course of the ongoing changes, a person has not only new opportunities, but also new skills ^[1]. At the same time, the old skills, skills, competencies, knowledge, which are no longer necessary, gradually fade away and die away. This happened in the process of technological development: with the advent of machine tools, railways, cars and other things. Previous skills were gradually dying off.

Certain physiological and cognitive functions were associated with many skills, which began to fade and atrophy from a decrease in the frequency of use. For example, with the replacement of physical labor by various mechanisms, the physical development of a person began to deteriorate. To compensate for this, there was a need for additional physical activity, physical education began to develop. A similar situation develops with the facilitation of human intellectual activity with the help of computer technology ^[2].

Currently, technological changes have begun to occur especially rapidly, in particular in the field of information and communication technologies. The capabilities of a person (in terms of learning speed, perception of information) have practically not changed, and a large amount of new information has emerged, requiring considerable effort, time spent on mastering the new, respectively, much of the old is no longer perceived, pushed aside.

This leads to fairly rapid changes in the skills used ^[1] and to the gradual death of obsolete skills, in particular, changes in thinking ^[3], cognitive functions. Subsequently, this can lead to problems when the appropriate technologies are not at hand, and the previous skills are no longer there. An example is the case of an emergency landing of an aircraft when lightning turned off the autopilot, and the pilots no longer had sufficient qualifications to successfully land the aircraft manually ^[4].

The subject of this article is the influence of the development of information and communication technologies on human cognitive functions.

Cognitive (cognitive) functions are usually called brain functions, with the help of which the process of rational cognition of the world is carried out and purposeful interaction with it is ensured, namely: perception of information; processing and analysis of information; memorization and storage; information exchange, construction and implementation of an action program ^[5]. More specifically, cognitive functions are memory, speech, the ability to concentrate attention, recognize objects (by sight, by ear, by touch); the ability to make purposeful movements.  A decrease in cognitive functions compared to the baseline level (norm) is a cognitive impairment ^[6].

Back at the beginning of the century, it was discovered that more and more teenagers, representatives of the digital generation, suffer from memory loss, attention disorder, cognitive impairment, depression and depression, and a low level of self-control ^{[7, 8]}. Currently, these processes continue to develop actively. Therefore, the study of the influence of information and communication technologies on cognitive functions and the identification of possible ways to neutralize the negative consequences of this influence seem relevant.

The purpose of this article is to analyze some cognitive impairments caused by the development of information and communication technologies, and to consider possible ways to compensate for them.

The methodological basis of the study was the analysis of scientific publications and generalized practical experience in identifying the main trends and problems arising from cognitive disorders associated with the development of information and communication technologies.

Results and discussion

The influence of computer technology on changes in cognitive functions. Let's consider the most frequently noted trends in the decline of human cognitive abilities due to the development of computer technology.

Attention has often been drawn ^[9] that due to the development of the Internet and television, the volume of non-electronic reading decreases, the number of books read by a person decreases, which leads to a weakening of interactions between verbal-logical and imaginative thinking. A person, preferring a video sequence, recognizes the text worse, formulates his thoughts worse.

It has been repeatedly pointed out ^[10] that with the widespread use of calculators, the ability to count in the mind has sharply decreased, which requires good development of certain cognitive functions, in particular, memory, analytical and logical thinking.

In addition, it is now becoming a habit to search for any information on the web. Just a couple of clicks and all the information of the world, any knowledge opens. There is no need to remember the date of the Battle of Austerlitz or who Kisa Vorobyaninov is. But the habit of using the network to answer every question makes the brain less trained, worsens verbal-logical memory ^[11].

Currently, many people have problems with memory — short—term, long-term - because any information and, accordingly, any texts are widely available. There are many reasons for the observed deterioration of memory: previously, I had to keep the birthdays of loved ones, phone numbers, addresses and a lot of other information in my head. Now all the data is stored in a smartphone, a computer, they also remind us of important events.

Messages-presentations, lectures-presentations, accompanied by a slide show, also remove the need for the speaker to memorize a large amount of material, detraining his memory.

All this leads to a weakening of memory. In addition to a certain functional disorder, a significant weakening of memory ("digital dementia") can lead to the early onset of elderly diseases (dementia, Alzheimer's disease) ^{[12, 13]}.

Nowadays, it is also becoming a habit to constantly view the feed on social networks. Likes, reposts, flipping through the tape makes a person concentrate less, switch quickly and easily navigate through disparate fragments of information.  Over time, the brain gets used to being focused on one task. Multitasking generated by digital technologies affects a person's cognitive abilities. Clip thinking, a superficial style of thinking is being developed ^[14]. There is no analysis of current information and access to possible results of actions. The emerging habit of shallow analysis of incoming information often does not allow us to identify the true causes and consequences, complicates critical thinking.

Frequent sh notifications (smartphone beeps) also contribute to the development of clip thinking.

With clip thinking, due to the high speed of information receipt and lack of time for its comprehension and/ or due to the lack of a developed habit, there is no deep processing of information, sequential logical chains are not created. A person cannot put together disparate facts into a single whole, his thinking is clip-based. At the same time, due to the speed of changes, a person does not have time to load information from working (short-term) memory into long-term memory, and it is erased, disappears ^[15]. As a result, a style of thinking is developed with the complication of the transition from working memory to long-term memory. For example, forgetting thoughts that appeared and were not recorded, considerations, intentions, especially broken by external influences, for example, smartphone beeps.

In addition, long-term presence in social networks, communication in them forms superficial contacts that are insufficient for successful socialization. A person's communication abilities decrease in everyday life: emotions and body language are worse recognized ^[16-18].

It is also noted ^[19] that constant work with the computer keyboard leads to changes in fine motor skills and deterioration of handwriting.

Finally, there is a decrease in the level of long-term basic knowledge: everything can be found on the Internet ^[20]. Lack of basic knowledge can lead to perception aberration, inaccurate judgments, illogical interpretations and/or irrationality in behavior in the broad sense of the word, when it is necessary to make current, momentary decisions in the absence of the Internet with a low level of basic knowledge (lack of information) and, in general, inadequate thinking.

Possible ways to compensate for deteriorating functions and skills. Naturally, there is a need to develop and maintain fading cognitive functions and skills. The brain, like muscles, needs training – or rather, neural connections need it. Neural connections for various reasons, in particular, for the above, either may not develop enough, or may weaken and degrade, so the task arises to support and train them. An adequate option would be special gymnastics for the brain or cognitive gymnastics, neurohymnastics ^[21].

This can be done with the help of suitable intellectual games, such as chess, checkers and similar, special exercises.

The game is a way of developing the brain, training it and loading it (filling it with a load (work) in the absence or lack of natural) ^[22]. For example, chess develops a tendency to analyze the situation, multivariate thinking, logical multistep thinking, which allows you to fight clip thinking.

Special exercises also contribute to the development and training of certain cognitive functions. For example, solving arithmetic problems in your mind will allow you to retain the ability to verbally count. Effective exercises for brain training can also be: solving crosswords, puzzles or Sudoku, reading, writing by hand, performing habitual actions with the other hand.

It is believed ^[23] that memorizing by heart and generally learning new information helps to preserve and maintain memory. For the development and preservation of memory, it is useful to learn poems by heart. This is a valuable exercise that develops the brain. It is also useful to search for information in paper sources, record significant dates and memorize phone numbers.

Gymnastics for the brain promotes the development of connections between brain cells, which leads to an increase in its plasticity. At the same time, a person can recover or retain functional ability and cognitive functions, that is, attention, memory and a number of others, do not suffer. Thus, gymnastics for the brain is an important factor in increasing brain plasticity and preserving cognitive functions.

The system of compensating classes, including educational games and special exercises, can be combined into an academic discipline under the conditional name "intellectual culture" (by analogy with physical culture).

Formation of basic knowledge. In addition to compensating classes (gymnastics for the brain), it is necessary to provide a certain level of basic knowledge (physics, chemistry, mathematics, history and other fundamental school disciplines)  to get rid of the constant dependence on the Internet, even in the simplest cases, and to ensure the ability to make current decisions and draw informed conclusions.

Basic knowledge is formed in a person since childhood – it is laid by family, school (mainly) and is further developed at the university. This also includes life experience, which is accumulated in the course of practical activity. This knowledge is subsequently used by a person throughout his life.

In connection with facilitating access to information on the Internet, there is a problem of the volume of basic knowledge. Of course, nowadays everything can be found on the Internet, calculated on a calculator. However, there is a certain minimum required amount of basic knowledge. You can't rely on a calculator and the Internet all the time. Usually current decisions are made on the basis of qualitative assessments and available own knowledge. For this, a set of basic knowledge is needed: if we are talking about trips to Riga and Reutov, it should be understood without the Internet that these are not similar trips. There is a certain basic invariant of system-forming knowledge, without which a person cannot be an elementary literate member of society.

At the same time, the organization of knowledge should be carried out so that they are in the system, being united by cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena, providing knowledge of general laws and principles of the structure of the world ("knowledge of some principles easily compensates for ignorance of some facts" K. A. Helvetius).

The influence of the development of information technologies leads to the possibility of reducing the level of detail of basic knowledge, and, accordingly, the need to increase the level of their relationship and interaction with external sources of information ^[20].

Thus, the basic speculative model should provide knowledge of general laws and principles in the structure of the surrounding world, allowing, if necessary, to carry out the required detail.

The need to correct the education system. Changes taking place due to new technologies, including in human cognitive functions, lead to the need to correct the work of the education system. It seems that it is necessary to place additional emphasis in education on the development of qualities that are weakened in people due to modern technological progress.

It can be assumed that students, along with modern aspects of learning: information literacy, technical literacy and humanitarian literacy, will need to provide a fairly complete systematized volume of classical, basic basics of literacy and erudition, adding here another discipline that can be defined as intellectual culture, and which will ensure the preservation of a high level of cognitive functions for students.

Conclusion

The article analyzes the violation of some cognitive functions caused by the development of information and communication technologies and discusses possible ways to compensate for it. It indicates a decrease in verbal-logical memory, a change in the form and depth of thinking, and a number of other disorders. It is shown that the necessary correction can be carried out by training weakening functions with the help of suitable intellectual games, special exercises, as well as providing a sufficiently high level of basic knowledge. In addition, it is proposed to adjust the education system to neutralize the observed trends.