Link Cube is a methodology for evaluating intellectual processes and cognitive functions. The simplest and best-studied form of visual thinking in the clinic is the process of solving constructive problems, and tasks such as Koos cubes or Link cube can serve as its simplest model. At the school of A. R. Luria, this technique was successfully used to analyze the βfrontalβ syndrome [1] . In child psychology, under the name "Unicub", it is part of the arsenal of educational games [2] [3] .
Content
Methodology
The technique was borrowed from the field of studying human labor activity and is now widely used in clinical practice and psychodiagnostics for studies of various mental disorders: resourcefulness, attention span, and emotional reactions. It is aimed at the study of visual ( constructive ) thinking , at the study of the development of a person's combinatorial abilities, observation, spatial thinking, the ability to analyze and structure thoughts, the sequence of fulfillment of oneβs own plan. [four]
The test subject needs to build a large cube of 27 small cubes with an edge length of 4 cm, all faces of which would be one certain (for example, yellow) color. In a set of 8 cubes have three sides of a certain color, 12 - two sides, 6 - one side and 1 - not a single side of a given color. [five]
According to the instructions, the test subject needs to fold a one-color cube (3X3X3). At the same time, time was recorded and the person had to complete the task as quickly as possible (in 15 minutes). If he doesnβt succeed, the psychologist explains and shows him how to do it and suggests folding it again, but of a different color (red or yellow). After the researcher has folded his first cube, for example, yellow, the psychologist dismantles it and asks now to assemble a cube of a different color. The third time - the remaining color. [6]
Performance and Normal
Link cube in most healthy subjects causes a feeling of enthusiasm, enthusiasm and enthusiasm (not only in children but also in adults). As soon as the work of folding begins, a person usually feels a gambling desire to finish it as quickly as possible without resorting to outside help. It is noted that increasing the given desire to completion is played by the stopwatch on the desktop in the subject's field of vision. For some patients, such a desire to end and a sense of involvement reaches too strong an inadequate degree: noticing at the end of the task that they cannot do it, they get annoyed and ruin everything that is done, they get angry, sometimes they are indignant because of the conditions of the task, sometimes, on the contrary, they start long and thoroughly redo what was started, not allowing yourself to interrupt and protesting against any help. Very painfully experiencing their failures. Such an aggravated proud reaction to the success, failure and evaluation of the experimenter is often observed in psychopaths . [four]
Emotionally unstable patients, especially adolescents, often fail to react violently when they fail: they defiantly refuse to continue working, and begin to be rude to the experimenter. And if, having almost completed the task, they discover a defect, then they destroy the whole structure. [7]
With lesions of the parieto-occipital departments of the left hemisphere, the ability to perform the tasks described above for constructive activity is significantly worsened due to a violation of spatial syntheses. Patients of this group helplessly sort out Link cubes, not knowing what position should be given to the figures so that they coincide with the set conditions in the problem.
They are characterized by a desire to continue working and a common plan for further work to achieve their goals - this is evidenced by a long series of tests and a critical attitude to their mistakes and shortcomings. [eight]
Performing the same tasks in patients with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain is of a different nature. These patients do not find any difficulties in finding the necessary spatial actions, solutions; however, the very activity of performing the task is grossly disturbed in them. Patients do not analyze the cube sample proposed by him, do not pay attention to the colors of all faces and impulsively place the cubes according to the directly received impressions. [eight]
Methods of implementation
Perhaps a few qualitatively different ways to complete this task. The most primitive of them is the trial and error method , when the subject chooses cubes without any system, which indicates a weak development of abstract-logical thinking in him. As a rule, it is not possible to solve the problem in this way. [7]
A more perfect way of working is the consistent selection of cubes to the mentally designated place (the first time). This means that the subject created a mental image of the process and the result of his activity, holds the algorithm in consciousness and correlates his actual manipulations with it. Implementation of activity by this method indicates a relatively high development of the ability to analytical and synthetic activity. [7]
For therapeutic purposes, to develop mutual understanding, cooperation and relationships, it is possible to use the technique in the joint work of mother and child. In this case, the instructions remain the same.
Notes
- β Gadzhiev S. G. Violation of visual intellectual activity in lesions of the frontal lobes of the brain // Frontal lobes and regulation of mental processes / Ed. A.R. Luria and E.D. Chomsky. - M., 1966.
- β Nikitin B.P. , Nikitina L.A. Educational games for children. - M., 1990.
- β Pylaeva N.M., Akhutina T.V. Overcoming the difficulties of learning: a neuropsychological approach. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2008. P. 15
- β 1 2 Rubinstein S. Ya. Experimental methods of pathopsychology. - M., 1999.
- β Kovyazina M.S. Balashova E. Yu. Neuropsychological diagnosis in questions and answers. - M., 2013 P.182
- β Eliseev O.P. Workshop on the Psychology of Personality - St. Petersburg, 2003 S.374-376.
- β 1 2 3 Kochenov M. M. βForensic psychological examinationβ Moscow, 1977.
- β 1 2 Luria A. R. Fundamentals of Neuropsychology. Textbook allowance for students. higher textbook. institutions. - M.: Publishing Center "Academy", 2003. S.215
See also
- Cubes Cubes
- Segen boards