V. M. Rusalov

Human behavioral flexibility: a psychogenetic study

Forty-seven two-children families from Moscow were used in a study to assess genetic determination of behavior flexibility, which was measured by eight laboratory tests. Flexibility is regarded as a temperament trait. There was no age- or sex-specific differentiation of human behavioral flexibility. Genetic determination of indices was used as a criterion for construct validization of flexibility tests. Factor analysis produced two principal components of flexibility: “operational flexibility” and “afferent flexibility.” The study showed that a considerable part of the phenotypic variability of the flexibility indices included in different factors is under approximately equal genetic control. The flexibility factors differ in their genetic determination. In the inheritance of the first factor the leading role belongs to the additive component, whereas the dominance effects are more prominent in the second factor of flexibility.

The Association of EEG Parameters Observed in Task Performance with Dominance of Motivation of Goal Attainment

Students (N = 70) were tested for motivation in choosing a profession, namely, for dominance of the subjective value or the attainability of the profession. Dominance of the subjective value showed negative correlations with EEG amplitude characteristics in the low-frequency band and positive correlations in the high-frequency band and, on this evidence, was considered to be associated with processes of brain activation. It was concluded that the motivational factor of the value of a profession is mostly influenced by individual features of temperament, which manifest themselves, in particular, in the general ergicity. The factor of attainability is negatively affected by certain features of the nervous system, especially by the general ergicity.

Individual differences in the structure of choice motivation in humans.

Motivation underlying the choice of human actions and behavior is one of the topical problems in the modern science of human behavior. Simonov [8] distinguishes two structural aspects of motivation: the value of reinforcement and the probability of it; in actual behavior of an animal or a human, one of these aspects may serve as the main regulator of activity. The purpose of this experimental study was to determine psychophysiological factors of a predominant orientation to the high probability of attaining the goal or its subjective value for a person.

Study of the preference of high probability of attaining the goal or its subjective value

The authors used testimonies of students on the dominant motives of joining a higher education institution as the behavioral model that prefers a high probability of the attainment of a goal or its subjective value. They compared the features of the motivation sphere related to the choice of profession with the psychophysiological data of 38 students of a sports higher education institution. The motivation of this choice was determined using a test questionnaire that permitted the authors to measure the subjective value (importance) and accessibility (probability of attainment) of the selected profession. The psychophysiological features were evaluated on two levels, i.e., formal dynamic (temperamental characteristics) and physiological (frequency and amplitude characteristics of EEG). The athlete students’ motivating factor of the choice of profession was shown to form under the influence of individual and typological features, which manifest themselves in psychomotor activity and total ergicity (working capacity), while accessibility experiences a negative influence of the temperamental characteristics in the intellectual sphere, as well as the total ergicity level. The background EEG was more activated in those who chose sports as their profession because of deeming it more valuable. In students who were attracted by the accessibility of this field, a lower cerebral activation level was observed, especially in the frontal zones of the left hemisphere.

Psychophysiological Prerequisites of Interaction Between Intelligence and Creative Abilities

In a study, related to the components of intelligence and creative abilities the scores 50 Ss reached in four tests measuring activity and four test measuring self-regulation were compared with parameters of EEG and ERP. While spatial-temporal synchronization of EEG was positively related to speed of performance and the Wechsler IQ, flexibility was found to be related with the energy of slow waves in EEG and the variability of ERP-amplitude.