Study of the cognitive sphere of children living in unfavorable environmental conditions

Context and relevance. The study is devoted to the study of the influence of adverse environmental factors on the human psyche, in particular, on the mental development of children. The relevance is due to the fact that the Chita region, and especially the city of Baley and the Baley region, are crisis ecological zones with high levels of air and soil pollution (lead, mercury, zinc, chromium, radon, uranium), which negatively affects the health and cognitive development of children. Purpose. Conduct psychological diagnostics of the level of intellectual development of preschool, primary school and adolescent children living in the environmental crisis zone (Baley and Baley districts). Hypothesis. Indicators of intellectual development of children living in an environmentally unfavorable zone will differ from the characteristics of the average age norm. Methods and materials. Sample: 557 children from the city of Baley and Baley district, distributed by age group: preschoolers (142 children: 41 in the city, 101 in the villages), younger schoolchildren (307 children: 155 in the tests of Peresleni, 152 in the matrices of Raven), adolescents (260 children: 116 in the city, 144 in the villages; age 12 to 15 years). Methods for preschoolers (according to A.L. Wenger): express diagnostics of intellectual abilities (Madison), the study of visual thinking ("Polyanka"), the study of perception ("Circle, square," "Figures"), determining the level of arbitrariness ("Pattern") and mental performance ("Figure tables"). Techniques for younger students: "Raven color matrices" for the study of logical thinking and verbal subtests by L.I. Peresleni for the assessment of verbal and logical thinking. Techniques for adolescents: A short selection test (KOT) to assess general mental abilities, including analysis, generalization, thinking flexibility and spatial imagination. Results. Preschoolers: indicators of mental abilities, performance, perception, thinking and arbitrariness in general are much lower than the age norm, and in rural areas the lag is more pronounced. Younger students: 62% of children on tests Peresleni and 69.2% on matrices Ravena have indicators indicating deviations in mental development (1st and 2nd levels of success), while in rural schools the percentage of children with deviations reaches 60-100%. Adolescents: The CTCT group average (10.6 in the city and 8.98 in the villages) is at the lower end of the median, and a significant proportion of children show low levels of development (including 50% of urban adolescents and 74.7% of rural adolescents according to Table 4), with only 3 of the total sample having a high level of development. Conclusion. There is a clear lag in the indicators of mental development of children of all studied age groups from the age norm. The authors note that, in addition to environmental factors, the cognitive development of children in this region could be influenced by the socio-economic situation, the low level of culture and education, as well as the crisis of the family institution.