Mental regulation of cognitive states in the intellectual activity of adolescents

The relevance of the study is due to the problem of searching mental mechanisms and logic in the regulation of human states. In the context of this problem, the aim of the study was to study the laws of the relationship between reflexivity and intelligence, on the one hand, and the cognitive states and the successful solving mathematical (geometric) problems by adolescents, on the other. We carried out the experiments in real conditions of schoolchildren's educational activity. The study involved 43 pupils of the 10th grades at the age of 15-16. The study consisted of two stages. At the first stage, we analyzed literature with the purpose of selecting the tasks with different levels of complexity. We chose 8 tasks from textbooks on geometry for grades from 7 to 9. At the second stage, during three standard lessons the empirical study was conducted. At the first lesson, we observed the reflexivity and the intelligence level of the students. At the second lesson, we offered the students to solve 4 mathematical tasks: a task of the students' level, two tasks of the standard level and a task of the heuristic level. We registered the cognitive states before solving the mathematical tasks and in the process of solving. At the third lesson, the students solved four tasks: two tasks of the students' level, a task of the standard level and a creative task. Students also noted their mental states in the process of solving each task. We have found that the frequency of actualization of cognitive states is more related to the level of reflexivity, rather than to the intelligence. Students with the high level of reflexivity more often experience cognitive states. The frequency of cognitive states tends to correlate with the successfully solved tasks. In the process of solving the tasks of creative and heuristic levels, the frequency of cognitive states actualization is the least. Teachers can use the results in the planning of training sessions, taking into account the individual characteristics of students.

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