The article presents a new computer-based test battery of neuropsychological assessment in 6–9-year-old children. The battery consists of seven tests for assessing executive functions, functions of activation regulation, functions of visual-spatial information and auditory information processing. The following tests are describedin the article: the Dots task, two-colored Schulte–Gorbov tables, Corsi block span test and Understanding of Similar Sounding Words test. The battery is developed in the software platform ‘MSU-Practice’ (http://psychosoft.ru). The system allows researchers to conduct the tests, collect data and analyze them. In addition, it includes cloud service to support the collaboration of different research groups. A total of 21 preschoolers, 52 first-graders and 114 second-graders took part in a pilot study. All three groups of children took the four computer tests and went through a neuropsychological assessment adapted for children between the ages of 5 and 9. The correlation analysis showed consistency between the results of the computertests and the results of the neuropsychological assessments. This allowed us to conclude that the new computer methodology is sufficiently sensible and valid to assess different components of higher mental functions in children. Keywords: neuropsychology, higher mental functions, primary school children, cognitive functions, computer-based tests

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User interaction with a virtual reality system may be accompanied with a sense of presence, the illusion of reality of virtual environment. The emergence of a sense of presence is determined by both technological and psychological factors. The authors show that a sense of presence may depend on the individual characteristics of cognitive control, i.e. the system of metacognition providing cognitive system setting on the solution of specific problems in context. It was found that the expression of a feeling of presence may depend on the efficiency of the control switch functions, interference suppression and updating of working memory. At the same time, the dependence of the severity of the sense of presence on the effectiveness of cognitive control differs in virtual environments with different levels of immersion.

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Background. In order to deepen understanding of signal detection/discrimination processes we have to focus on highlighting individual differences in observers' sensory performance due to the contribution of various variables of personality and cognition spheres. The purpose of our study was to test cognitive style factors (augmenting-reducing, levelling-sharpening, flexibility-rigidity of cognitive control, equivalence range, and focusing-scanning) influencing performance of psychophysical tasks.Methods. Ninety participants performed a set of cognitive style tests as well as two psychophysical tasks on visual signal detection ('yes-no') and loudness discrimination ('same-different'). The duration of visual pattern presentation and difference between pairs of auditory stimuli were used to provide task's difficulty level, and therefore the level of uncertainty. Results. Data analysis showed several effects of cognitive styles on psychophysical tasks performance indices, in particular: sensory sensitivity, RT and its stability, and response confidence. According to our results, each style is related to its own benefits and advantages in observer's overall productivity. Furthermore, the contribution of cognitive styles differed depending on task's type and difficulty level. Conclusions. Our results support current findings, considering cognitive styles as playing a regulative role in cognitive activity. Hence, they could be acknowledged as tools, mediating individual strategies, representing different ways of coping with perceptual uncertainty.

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The study was undertaken to find relationships between personality and temperamental traits (estimated with the help of the Adult Personality Traits Questionnaire by Manolova, Leonhard and the Russian version of the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ) by Rusalov V. & Trofimova I. (2007)) on the one hand, and parameters of intonation (mean ΔF0, tone span, speech rate, duration of speech and mean duration of syllables interval) on the other hand. The parameters of intonation were measured on sample recordings produced by 30 male and female participants. 60 recordings of natural monologues on proposed topics were obtained in situations of the presence and absence of a conversation partner. Demostrativity (as a personality trait according to Leonhard's typology) was found to significantly affect mean ΔF0, tone span and speech rate in the presence of an interlocutor. Social Tempo (as a dimension of temperament according to Rusalov's model) affects the speech rate. In the absence of an interlocutor, only an interaction effect of Demonstrativity and Communication Activity on the same group of vocal parameters was obtained. The presence of an interlocutor proved to be a special condition for the most explicit appearance of Demonstrativity. Temperamental indices that describe the Communication realm seem to moderate the appearance of Demonstrativity in different conditions. Most explicitly, the key feature of people with strong Demonstrativity is a high speech rate.