Cognitive base for the information interchange in the processes of cultural communication

In: Vestnik Permskogo universiteta: Perm University Herald. Seriya Filosofia Psikhologiya Sotsiologiya = Series "Philosophy, psychologie, sociology", Issue 2, p. 215-222

Abstract

Cognitive processes underlying the interchange of cultural information are twofold: on the one hand, the anthropospheric level of cultural knowledge organization allows the recipient to receive it in a processed and ready-to-use form. On the other hand, obtaining from the culture ready-made solutions to the problems faced leads to a decrease in the individual's ability to produce his or her own creative ideas. The processes of cultural information processing are divided into assimilative (aimed at the inclusion of input into the recipient's mental system) and accommodative (aimed at adapting his or her own worldview to information coming from outside) ones. The information received in the process of cultural communication is internalized by the recipient to the extent he or she is sensitive to it. In this case, sensitivity is understood as the ability to harmoniously embed the input data into the existing system of cognitive schemes. At the same time, the act of informational translation becomes a stimulus, while the internalization of data is a reaction to it. A fundamental principle of cultural information assimilation is cognitive economy — the desire to obtain the most effective solution to the problem with the minimum expenditure of mental resources. Often, the result is development of cognitive laziness, inability and unwillingness to use the resources freed up for creative work which could then be used by the person as a donor of cultural information. With the increase in the amount of assimilated information, the level of its recipient's adaptability to the system of culture increases both in the local and global sense applicable to humanity as a whole as the largest of the cultural groups. At the same time, increasing the degree of cultural adaptation leads to a decrease in the person's creative potential since creativity takes a person beyond the general group vector of cultural development.