Trainability

TRAINABILITY, a term used in biology and psychology in several senses. In the broad biological understanding, trainability is the property of variability whose stimulus is the factor of exercise. Lamarckians assign an exclusively important role to exercise as a factor of phylogenetic and ontogenetic development. In differential psychology and psychotechnology, trainability is interpreted, on one hand, as the ability of the human organism to develop and improve psychophysiological functions through exercise (Ubungsfahigkeit), and on the other hand, as the property of the psychophysiological functions themselves to change under the influence of exercise (Ubbarkeit) and simultaneously as a measure of the possible variability of these functions. A distinction is made between functions that possess the property of trainability to a very high degree, for example motor functions, and alongside them functions that are comparatively little exercised, for example sensory functions. A special place is occupied by the problem of individual differences in trainability and the analysis of the causes of these differences (differential psychology). Trainability is interpreted as an individual property conditioned by general or special aptitude (general and special intelligence). In psychotechnology and work psychology, the problem of trainability is studied primarily from the point of view of comparative analysis of professionally important functions and their relative variability under the influence of exercise. Disputes and disagreements arise on the basis of deductively introduced into experimental facts concepts about the determinants of mental development. These disputes boil down to the so-called "theory of general and specific factor" (general and special factor). The initial task of the earliest studies of trainability, placed on the grounds of experimental psychology and pedagogy, was to reveal the general regularities of the exercise process and the mechanisms underlying it. The expression of these regularities are the so-called "exercise curves" (Obungskurven or learning curve); on the abscissa are plotted the successive stages of exercise from the first session to the last, and on the ordinate - the results achieved at each stage (indicators of task completion time, or indicators of performance). In the search for a general and universal law of exercise, attempts were made to mathematically express the main tendency of the increase in successfulness in the course of exercise. In numerous studies, we find the assertion of the existence of a general regularity of the exercise curve and attempts to give corresponding mathematical formulas (usually formulas of parabola or hyperbola). Most authors see in such formulas an expression of the universal law of exercise. This law is most often recognized as the law of the exponential, or power curve with a tendency to a gradual decrease in increment as exercise progresses. In the works of recent times, objections have been raised both against the universality of the said formula and regarding the mathematical side of the proof of the psychological law. A number of experiments have shown the existence of a large number of variations of exercise curves. In particular, the attention of psychologists has been drawn to the phenomenon known as the "plateau", noted on a number of exercise curves. Attempts to uncover the mechanisms underlying exercise have led to the creation of a whole series of theories of exercise. Even Wundt in "Foundations of Physiological Psychology" wrote: "We can attempt to explain the significance in mental life of the so-called exercise or habit by means of certain properties of the nervous substance, namely the change in its excitability under the influence of previous irritations". Since then, in experimental psychology, many facts have accumulated that illuminate the phenomenon of exercise from the most various sides. The abundance of factual material has generated many hypotheses and theories about the essence of exercise. The theory of path formation, trial and error, conditioned reflexes, automation, exclusion of unnecessary links and inclusion of new links in the nervous process, formation of structures (Gestaltstheorie), the theory of associations - all this by no means exhausts the diversity of existing viewpoints on this question. In the process of studying trainability, the attention of individual researchers was drawn now to one, now to another side of the complex phenomenon of exercise. Particularly much light has been shed here by works in the field of work psychology and psychotechnology, military psychophysiology, educational psychology, physical culture, sports and work therapy. As a result, there has emerged a tendency to clarify and differentiate the very concept of trainability and to create a number of new concepts designed to highlight some specific forms of exercise. Thus, Giese (Handbuch psychotechnischer Eignungsprufungen, S. 740-759) distinguishes nine types of exercise (Diagnoseubung, Berufsubung, Oberilacheniibung, Entwicklungsubung, Fertigkeitsubung oder Dressur, Restitutionsiibung, Pseudo-oderTrickubung, Paradoxubung oderLeistungsverschlechterung, immanente Ubung). A number of authors (Peters and others) draw a distinction between natural and artificial exercise. A specific form of artificial exercise has received the designation of training (see). Of particular interest to psychotechnicians and psychologists were the phenomena of concomitant development, which became the subject of special experiments. The concepts of "co-exercise", "cross-exercise" and "transfer of exercise" came to be widely used to denote various shades of the process of concomitant development. In their attempt to uncover the mechanisms of these processes, psychologists and psychotechnicians have undertaken searches for intercorrelation connections between individual psychological functions. Over a number of years, Thorndike accumulated a huge experimental material, formulated the "laws of exercise" (law of effect, law of repetition, law of identical elements, etc.), which soon provoked objections. Kraepelin, who developed the theory of the "work curve" (Arbeitskurve), considers exercise as one of the most essential components of the "work curve". The variability of work capacity, detectable in the process of any prolonged work, is determined by the simultaneous action of factors of fatigue and exercise, as well as by other influences. At the same time, both these factors appear not as acting in isolation, but in extremely complex interaction. Gellerstein and others have accumulated a large experimental material that made it possible to identify the specific peculiarities of exercise of memory functions, visual perception, accuracy of movements, speed of simple and complex motor reaction, visual-motor coordination, volume of attention, etc.; special attention was paid to the analysis of the plateau phenomenon. The issues of specific trainability of certain motor and sensory functions have been developed by Levztov and Tolchinsky. Trainability from the physiological side has been developed very little, and yet this widespread phenomenon has great theoretical and practical significance. Processes in the central nervous system - the so-called path formation (Bahnung), changes in the sensory and motor spheres of the brain, formation of new conditioned connections, the process of automation of movements and a number of changes on the periphery, such as change in excitability of muscles, a different direction of biochemical processes in the muscle fiber - this is the complex of questions that constitutes the problem of trainability and which is at present the subject of study.