Change in the Perception Model and Specifics of Young People’s Comprehension of Term Meaning

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The article discusses some changes that have been taking place in particular structures of mental lexicon. It presents the results of linguistic experiment aimed at revealing some shifts in perception of terms resulting from global virtualization of reality, which greatly affects all the structures of language consciousness, and transformation of information perception processes due to computerization. A new test was developed and used to get true information about dominant perceptional modality of the experiment participants. The results of the first stage of the experiment show that during the period of eleven years (2010–2021) the perception model of people aged from 18 to 20 has been shifting towards a digital type, when comprehension of a word meaning is based on logic, real facts, proofs. Some possible reasons for digital modality prevalence, the use of visual modality as an auxiliary tool for the digital representational system, decrease in the significance of kinesthetic and auditory modalities are described. The results of the second stage of the experiment reveal a rather high level of emotional attitude to the stimuli connected with the professional sphere of digital generation. In this case the psychological emotionality of term meaning implies great interest, involvement and good understanding of the notion.