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Psychologist
Reference:

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
 

 

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8701.2023.3.38980

EDN:

RTWADI

Received:

19-10-2022


Published:

05-07-2023


Abstract: At present, serious technological changes are taking place in the world and especially rapidly in the field of information and communication technologies. These changes have a significant impact on all aspects of people's lives and activities. The subject of this article is the influence of the development of information and communication technologies on human cognitive functions. The effects of the Internet, smartphones, social networks, calculators, working with the keyboard, and reducing the volume of non-electronic reading are considered in detail. Particular attention is paid to the impairment of verbal and logical memory, the emergence of "digital dementia", the deterioration of analytical and logical thinking, the emergence of clip thinking, a decrease in communication abilities and the complication of current decision-making. A number of possible approaches are proposed as means to compensate for the decrease in the considered cognitive functions caused by the development of information and communication technologies It is shown that the necessary correction can be carried out by training weakening functions with the help of special cognitive gymnastics: suitable intellectual games, certain exercises. 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). The need to ensure a sufficiently high level of basic knowledge was also noted. In addition, it is proposed to adjust the education system to neutralize the observed negative trends.


Keywords:

cognitive functions, information and communication technologies, influence, memory, clip thinking, communication skills, making decisions, compensation, educational games, special exercises

This article is automatically translated.

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.

References
1. Gelman V. Ya. (2022) Formation of a system of professional stereotypes among university students // Alma mater. No. 2. Pp. 35-41. DOI: 10.20339/AM.02-22.035
2. Small G., Vorgan G. (2011) Brain online. Man in the era of the Internet / transl. From English B. Kozlovsky. M. : Hummingbird: Azbuka-Atticus, 352 p.
3. Bobrova L. A. (2019) Computer, internet and thinking: changing thinking under the influence of modern technologies // Social and humanitarian sciences. Domestic and foreign literature. Ser. 3, Philosophy: Abstract journal. Pp. 72-80
4. Preliminary report on the results of the investigation of the crash of the aircraft RRJ-95B RA-89098 / Interstate Aviation Committee. 2019. 104 p.
5. Avedisova A. S., Fayzulloev A. F. (2003) Cognitive functions and methods of their study // Russian Psychiatric Journal. No. 1. Pp. 16-20.
6. Zakharov V. V. Management of patients with cognitive impairment // Russian medical journal. 2007. No. 6. S. 510-515.
7. Abdullin A. G., Likholetov V. V., Karavaev A. F. (2022) “Lifebuoy” for preventing the deterioration of youth health in the era of digital transformation of education // Psychopedagogy in law enforcement agencies. V. 27, No. 2(89). pp. 173-188. https://doi.org/ 10.24412/1999-6241-2022-289-173-188
8. Greenfield S., Change M. (2014) How digital technologies are leaving their marks on our brains. Random House, 384 p.
9. Morozova T.V. (2016) Why do the youth of today read so little? / In: Actual problems of the humanities in Russia and abroad. Novosibirsk. Pp. 35-40.
10. Vershlovskiy S. G., Matyushkina M. D. (2007) Functional literacy of school graduates // Sociological research. No. 5. Pp. 140-144.
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12. Shulyak A. S. (2015) Computer and health // Smolensk medical almanac. Issue No. 3. Pp. 120-122.
13. Baek I. H., Park E. J. (2013) ‘Digital dementia’ is on the rise. Korea JoongAng Daily. http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid¼2973527. Accessed October 12, 2022.
14. Dokuka S. V. (2013) Clip thinking as a phenomenon of the information society // Social sciences and modernity. no. 2. Pp. 169-176.
15. Dmitrieva E. S., Gelman V. Ya., Zaitseva K. A., Lanko S. V. (2007) Age-related features of the relationship between learning success and characteristics of auditory working memory. Journal of higher nervous activity. Volume 57. No. 3. Pp. 279-286.
16. Smirnova O. M. (2017) Digital era and virtualization of consciousness // Problems and risks of engineering education in the XXI century: Monograph / Ed. I.A. Gerasimova. Moscow: Universitetskaya kniga. Pp. 76-109.
17. Gelman V. Ya., Dmitrieva E. S. (2017) The relationship of the emotional intelligence of students with the perception of non-verbal information. Psychology of learning. No. 11. Pp. 28-38.
18. Dmitrieva E. S., Gel’man V. Ya., Zaitseva K. A., and Orlov A. M. (2008) “Dependence of the perception of emotional speech information on the acoustic parameters of the stimulus in children of different ages,” Human Physiology. V. 34. No. 4. Pp. 149-153.
19. Venevtseva Yu. L., Putilin L. V. (2018) Gender features of handwriting and their relationship with the vegetative and psychophysiological status of students of the medical institute // Bulletin of new medical technologies. Electronic edition. Vol. 12. No. 6. Pp. 165-168.
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21. Noskova I. S. (2017) Cognitive gymnastics // Nurse. No. 5. Pp. 22-25.
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First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

In this article, the author did not pay attention to substantiating the relevance of his research. The introduction provides general information in any form that 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, etc. But there is absolutely no emphasis on the research topic: "On compensating for the impact of the development of information and communication technologies on cognitive functions." This formulation of the topic is very incomprehensible and incorrect in meaning. Such a statement of the topic with the absence of a formulation of the subject of research in the text makes it impossible to substantiate its relevance. This is what is observed in this case. Therefore, further work is needed. Since the topic of the article was formulated incorrectly, the author also failed to show the novelty of the research and its methodology. Without such attributes as the subject of the study, its methodology and novelty, the text is usually perceived in a haphazard and non-objective way, which is observed in this case. The author writes that the purpose of this article is to analyze attenuation.... and consideration of possible ways to compensate him. This refers to the weakening of some cognitive functions caused by the development of information and communication technologies. The formulation of the research goal is also clearly incorrect. It is unclear what kind of weakening the author has in mind. If there was a formulation of the subject, then it is obvious that by it the author just means some kind of weakening. Author, what is weakening? Is this a process, are there any reasons in mind? What is meant by weakening? It is necessary to specify concepts and formulations. The style of presentation of the text is abstract and still quite primitive. The author writes about some kind of fire, bows, arrows, water, children, etc. Why all this? For example, "once upon a time a person could get fire by friction, hunt with a bow and arrow", "it is important not to throw out a child with water", etc. There are primitive and unsubstantiated claims that "with the replacement of physical labor by various mechanisms, the physical development of a person began to deteriorate." The structure of the work does not correspond to the generally accepted standards of presentation of a scientific text. Categories are randomly entered: - The influence of computer technology on changes in cognitive functions. - Possible ways to compensate for deteriorating functions and skills. - Formation of basic knowledge. - The need to correct the education system. Due to the incorrect structure of the article, its content is presented inconsistently and illogically. For example, the author writes about the weakening of cognitive functions, but does not specifically cite any of them, and therefore it is unclear which functions are meant. If we are talking about a scientific publication, then we should strive for scientific criteria. But in this case, this is not the case and the general reasoning about everything that may be relevant to the stated topic in general is obvious. Specification is needed. The author writes that "cognitive (cognitive) functions are commonly referred to as the most complex functions of the brain." Neuropsychologically, all functions are complex. Highlighting something as the most or least is completely wrong. Even if the author refers to literary sources, this is not an argument of proof. Literary sources need to be analyzed in a critical way. This is a mandatory criterion for the scientific character of the text. Speaking of sources. Some of them have nothing to do with psychology and therefore should be replaced. It is also advisable to replace the link to Wikipedia. This is not a scientific source. There are statements in the text that are unconvincing. For example, "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 disorders, cognitive impairment, depression and depression, and a low level of self-control." In this case, there is a link to the source, but in this case it is necessary to express your attitude to someone else's statement. There are many such statements in the text. And in conclusion, the author writes that "the changes taking place due to new technologies, including in human cognitive functions, lead to the need to correct the work of the educational 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." The fact is that the country does not have an "educational system", but an education system. And this education system is constantly in a state of correction. Thus, there are many disadvantages in this article. But all of them can be eliminated if the text is given due attention. Therefore, we can recommend that the author finalize the text taking into account the proposed comments. After finalizing the text, the article can be recommended for publication, since the problem of cognitive disorders, as a rule, is of great interest to the reading audience.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The object of the proposed research is cognitive functions, and the subject is the influence of information technology on the latter. The relevance of the study is undeniable, since it is widely known that any technology (group of technologies) has both positive and side effects. Digital communication technologies are by no means an exception. Social observations show that people's immersion in the digital world is increasingly hypertrophied in nature with risks of a negative impact on personal development. Nevertheless, relatively little is said about the negative effects of digital technologies. In this sense, the vector set by the author suggests a real problem. The latter is also strengthened because the work describes aspects that are essentially related to the daily life of each person, so the article can arouse interest among a wide range of readers. Together, this allows us to talk about the elements of scientific novelty. The research methodology involves the use of a comprehensive theoretical psychological and pedagogical analysis of a deductive nature. This is a 100% pedagogical approach, not a psychological one. There are no elements of practical research in the work, so it is suitable for the pedagogical heading in the psychological journal. From a linguistic point of view, the text is executed in compliance with the general norms of scientific style, but with an obvious bias towards journalistic. This is how we can talk about the popular science nature of the text, which is rather good for the magazine genre. The author's communication with the reader is clearly traced in the text. The list of references meets the requirements, although, in our opinion, such a topic implies saturation with the latest sources, namely works from the 2020s, the following can be attributed to the comments on the article. The article lacks the theoretical part in the traditional sense – the author immediately proceeds to deductive analysis. Most likely, in a work of this kind, the theoretical part should describe the main communicative conditions caused by the change of technologies, as well as the significant cognitive qualities that they affect. Of course, an analysis of the authors' points of view is also necessary, or at least a review of the research. In the introduction, the author constantly notes outdated skills in the context of progress, however, it is desirable to provide a list of specific examples of such skills in relation to information technology. This information can be traced in the text of the work, but the scientific genre assumes a little more rigor in the presentation. The conclusion was not executed in accordance with generally accepted requirements. It should contain meaningful thesis conclusions, and not general phrases that actually repeat the purpose of the article. All of the above suggests that the manuscript is more like a conference thesis than an article for a journal. This is also indicated by the volume – 14 thousand characters, as a rule, articles on the humanities contain at least 20 thousand. Ideally, this material requires expansion according to the above parameters, however, taking into account the high problemativeness, relevance, interesting and original author's thoughts, it can be evaluated as acceptable and acceptable for publication in a peer-reviewed publication.