Subjective Task Research Articles

Visual Cortex Encodes Timing Information in Humans and Mice

Despite the importance of timing, our understanding is limited regarding how second-scale time perception is mediated in the human brain. Here we combined intracranial stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) recordings in human subjects with circuit dissection in mice to show that visual cortex encodes timing information. We first performed an interval timing task in human subjects to identify visual cortex (V1) as a key timing brain area. We then conducted optogenetic experiments in mice to show that visual cortex is necessary for interval timing behavior. Consistent with this possibility, V1 neurons fire in a time-keeping sequential manner and exhibited an increased excitability in timed manner. We used a computational model to illustrate a self-correcting learning process that generates interval-timed activities with scalar-timing variability. Our work reveals how localized oscillations in the visual cortex encode timing information in the external world to guide behavior.

High density optical neuroimaging predicts surgeons's subjective experience and skill levels.

Measuring cognitive load is important for surgical education and patient safety. Traditional approaches of measuring cognitive load of surgeons utilise behavioural metrics to measure performance and surveys and questionnaires to collect reports of subjective experience. These have disadvantages such as sporadic data, occasionally intrusive methodologies, subjective or misleading self-reporting. In addition, traditional approaches use subjective metrics that cannot distinguish between skill levels. Functional neuroimaging data was collected using a high density, wireless NIRS device from sixteen surgeons (11 attending surgeons and 5 surgery resident) and 17 students while they performed two laparoscopic tasks (Peg transfer and String pass). Participant's subjective mental load was assessed using the NASA-TLX survey. Machine learning approaches were used for predicting the subjective experience and skill levels. The Prefrontal cortex (PFC) activations were greater in students who reported higher-than-median task load, as measured by the NASA-TLX survey. However in the case of attending surgeons the opposite tendency was observed, namely higher activations in the lower v higher task loaded subjects. We found that response was greater in the left PFC of students particularly near the dorso- and ventrolateral areas. We quantified the ability of PFC activation to predict the differences in skill and task load using machine learning while focussing on the effects of NIRS channel separation distance on the results. Our results showed that the classification of skill level and subjective task load could be predicted based on PFC activation with an accuracy of nearly 90%. Our finding shows that there is sufficient information available in the optical signals to make accurate predictions about the surgeons' subjective experiences and skill levels. The high accuracy of results is encouraging and suggest the integration of the strategy developed in this study as a promising approach to design automated, more accurate and objective evaluation methods.

Visual Cortex Alterations in Early and Late Blind Subjects During Tactile Perception

Involvement of visual cortex varies during tactile perception tasks in early blind (EB) and late blind (LB) human subjects. This study explored differences in sensory motor networks associated with tactile task in EB and LB subjects and between children and adolescents. A total of 40 EB subjects, 40 LB subjects, and 30 sighted controls were recruited in two subgroups: children (6-12 years) and adolescents (13-19 years). Data were acquired using a 3T MR scanner. Analyses of blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD), functional connectivity (FC), correlation, and post hoc test for multiple comparisons were carried out. Difference in BOLD activity was observed in EB and LB groups in visual cortex during tactile perception, with increased FC of visual with dorsal attention and sensory motor networks in EB. EB adolescents exhibited increased connectivity with default mode and salience networks when compared with LB. Functional results correlated with duration of training, suggestive of better performance in EB. Alteration in sensory and visual networks in EB and LB correlated with duration of tactile training. Age of onset of blindness has an effect in cross-modal reorganization of visual cortex in EB and multimodal in LB in children and adolescents.

Influence of Game Design, Physical Demands, and Skill Involvement on the Subjective Task Load Associated With Various Small-Sided Games Among Elite Junior Rugby League Players

To determine if small-sided games (SSGs) could be designed to target specific task loads using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration task load index as well as reporting the influence of the physical and technical demands. Using a within-session, repeated-measures design, 26 junior rugby league players completed 5 SSGs focused on physical, technical, temporal, cognitive, and frustration task loads. National Aeronautics and Space Administration task load index responses were evaluated after each game; the physical demands were recorded using microtechnology; and skill involvement recorded using video analysis. In each SSG, the task load emphasized (eg,physical load/physical game) emerged with a higher score than the other loads and SSGs. The physical demands were lowest during the physical game (effect size = -3.11 to 3.50) and elicited greater defensive involvements (effect size = 0.12 to 3.19). The highest physical demands and attacking involvements were observed during the temporal game. Lower intensity activities were generally negatively associated with physical, performance, temporal, and total load (η2 = -.07 to -.43) but positively associated with technical, effort, cognitive, and frustration (η2 = .01 to .33). Distance covered in total and at higher speeds was positively associated with physical, effort, performance, total load (η2 = .18 to .65), and negatively associated with technical, frustration, and cognitive load (η2 = -.10 to -.36). Attacking and defensive involvements generally increased the respective task loads (η2 = .03 to .41). Coaches and sport scientists can design SSGs specifically targeted at subjective task loads in a sport-specific manner and through manipulation of the physical and technical demands.

Which jump-landing task best represents lower extremity and trunk kinematics of unanticipated cutting maneuver?

BackgroundThe double-leg jump-landing (DLJL) task is commonly used as a movement screen that can be implemented in large cohorts of athletes. However, it is debatable whether the DLJL is ecologically valid and reflects sporting requirements or injury-prone situations, such as cutting and pivoting. Research questionWhich jump-landing movement variation best represents the kinematics of unanticipated side-step cutting? MethodsForty-two participants (25 males and 17 females) performed unanticipated side-step cutting and four jump-landing tasks: DLJL, rotated DLJL (DLJLrot), single-leg jump-landing (SLJL), and rotated SLJL (SLJLrot). Ankle, knee, hip, pelvis, and trunk angles and angular velocities, and pelvic linear accelerations were collected at initial contact and during the first 100 milliseconds after initial contact (minimum, maximum, and range values) using a three-dimensional infrared camera system and inertial measurement units. Pre-contact foot-ground angles and subjective task difficulty ratings were also recorded. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) between cutting and jump-landing kinematics were calculated for each participant and jump-landing variation. Friedman tests with pairwise comparisons were then used to compare the degree of association between the four different jump-landing tasks at the specified time events and to compare the difficulty ratings. ResultsConsidering the ICC values across the events of interest, the kinematics of the DLJL were the least associated with those of cutting (ICC = 0.00 to 0.81), and DLJLrot (ICC = 0.34 to 0.81) and SLJLrot (ICC = 0.31 to 0.80) biomechanics the most. Participants rated the perceived challenge of the single-leg tasks in a similar manner to cutting (p > 0.103), and the SLJLrot as the most difficult task (median = “neutral”, mode = “neutral”). SignificanceDue to their biomechanical associations with cutting maneuver and subjectively-rated difficulty levels, both DLJLrot and SLJLrot may be more appropriate and ecologically valid for screening for risk of injury across a range of sports.

Students’ coping with the self-regulatory demand of crisis-driven digitalization in university mathematics instruction: do motivational and emotional orientations make a difference?

The COVID-19 pandemic induced a radical shift from face-to-face lectures to online learning in university mathematics instruction, which confronted students with a high self-regulatory demand. We investigated the role of students' motivational and emotional orientations regarding mathematics in coping with this demand. Among N = 123 university students (54 women) studying mathematics at the tertiary level, two clusters differing in mathematics related interest, anxiety, self-concept, and work ethics could be identified—namely less promising (n = 63) and more promising (n = 60) motivational and emotional orientations. Controlling for gender and general attitude towards learning mathematics with information and communications technology (ICT), students in the more promising cluster reported higher expectation of success, higher need for face-to-face social interaction, and less preference for online learning formats after the pandemic situation than students from the less promising cluster. However, students in different clusters did not differ significantly in their subjective task value, their learning outside of course structures, and their appreciation of digital learning formats. The results suggest that a positive general attitude towards learning with ICT was the key element influencing students’ coping with learning in the pandemic situation. In addition, particularly students demonstrating more promising orientations were eager to return to face-to-face instruction.

Hemodynamic matrix factorization for functional magnetic resonance imaging

The General Linear Model (GLM) used in task-fMRI relates activated brain areas to extrinsic task conditions. The translation of resulting neural activation into a hemodynamic response is commonly approximated with a linear convolution model using a hemodynamic response function (HRF). There are two major limitations in GLM analysis. Firstly, the GLM assumes that neural activation is either on or off and matches the exact stimulus duration in the corresponding task timings. Secondly, brain networks observed in resting-state fMRI experiments present also during task experiments, but the GLM approach models these task-unrelated brain activity as noise. A novel kernel matrix factorization approach, called hemodynamic matrix factorization (HMF), is therefore proposed that addresses both limitations by assuming that task-related and task-unrelated brain activity can be modeled with the same convolution model as in GLM analysis. By contrast to the GLM, the proposed HMF is a blind source separation (BSS) technique, which decomposes fMRI data into modes. Each mode comprises of a neural activation time course and a spatial mapping. Two versions of HMF are proposed in which the neural activation time course of each mode is convolved with either the canonical HRF or predetermined subject-specific HRFs.Firstly, HMF with the canonical HRF is applied to two open-source cohorts. These cohorts comprise of several task experiments including motor, incidental memory, spatial coherence discrimination, verbal discrimination task and a very short localization task, engaging multiple parts of the eloquent cortex. HMF modes were obtained whose neural activation time course followed original task timings and whose corresponding spatial map matched cortical areas known to be involved in the respective task processing.Secondly, the alignment of these neural activation time courses to task timings were further improved by replacing the canonical HRF with subject-specific HRFs during HMF mode computation.In addition to task-related modes, HMF also produced seemingly task-unrelated modes whose spatial maps matched known resting-state networks.The validity of a fMRI task experiment relies on the assumption that the exposure to a stimulus for a given time causes an imminent increase in neural activation of equal duration. The proposed HMF is an attempt to falsify this assumption and allows to identify subject task participation that does not comply with the experiment instructions.

Intelligent Video Highlights Generation with Front-Camera Emotion Sensing.

In this paper, we present HOMER, a cloud-based system for video highlight generation which enables the automated, relevant, and flexible segmentation of videos. Our system outperforms state-of-the-art solutions by fusing internal video content-based features with the user’s emotion data. While current research mainly focuses on creating video summaries without the use of affective data, our solution achieves the subjective task of detecting highlights by leveraging human emotions. In two separate experiments, including videos filmed with a dual camera setup, and home videos randomly picked from Microsoft’s Video Titles in the Wild (VTW) dataset, HOMER demonstrates an improvement of up to in -score from baseline, while not requiring any external hardware. We demonstrated both the portability and scalability of HOMER through the implementation of two smartphone applications.

Influence of Contextual Factors, Technical Performance, and Movement Demands on the Subjective Task Load Associated With Professional Rugby League Match-Play.

To identify the association between several contextual match factors, technical performance, and external movement demands on the subjective task load of elite rugby league players. Individual subjective task load, quantified using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), was collected from 29 professional rugby league players from one club competing in the European Super League throughout the 2017 season. The sample consisted of 26 matches (441 individual data points). Linear mixed modeling revealed that various combinations of contextual factors, technical performance, and movement demands were associated with subjective task load. Greater number of tackles (effect size correlation ± 90% confidence intervals; η2 = .18 ± .11), errors (η2 = .15 ± .08), decelerations (η2 = .12 ± .08), increased sprint distance (η2 = .13 ± .08), losing matches (η2 = .36 ± .08), and increased perception of effort (η2 = .27 ± .08) led to most likely-very likely increases in subjective total task load. The independent variables included in the final model for subjective mental demand (match outcome, time played, and number of accelerations) were unclear, excluding a likely small correlation with technical errors (η2 = .10 ± .08). These data provide a greater understanding of the subjective task load and their association with several contextual factors, technical performance, and external movement demands during rugby league competition. Practitioners could use this detailed quantification of internal loads to inform recovery sessions and current training practices.

Automatically selecting hot and cold pixels for satellite actual evapotranspiration estimation under different topographic and climatic conditions

The persistent monitoring of evapotranspiration (ET) over the regions suffering from water scarcity is critical for sustainable agricultural water management. Remote sensing provides time- and cost-effective capability to investigate daily ET rates at large scales. Satellite-based actual evapotranspiration (ETa) algorithms typically rely on specifying the upper and lower boundaries of ETa rate over agricultural and pasture fields, commonly known as hot (dry) and cold (wet) pixels selection. These boundaries are to be recognized by an expert through a subjective and labor-intensive task. In this study, a method has been introduced to automatically select appropriate anchor pixels (i.e., hot and cold pixels) independent from land use/cover maps with the simplest possible way, quickly applied even by an inexperienced operator. Subsequently, ETa was calculated using Mapping EvapoTranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC), Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL), and Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) algorithms and evaluated against measured data. In this method, the mountains and foothills were removed using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Digital Elevation Model (SRTM DEM) and the subsequent product was a slope mask. Then, filters were applied based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Albedo, and Land Surface Temperature (LST) images to identify potential candidate pixels for hot and cold pixels. In the end, the best-conditioned pixel being closest to the meteorological station was selected. The method was assessed in five different regions with different topographic and climatic conditions. The selected pixels were first visually validated in Landsat images, and then the fluctuations and values were discussed in time series of anchor pixels and LST histograms. The visual interpretation was indicative of selecting the anchor pixels in fallow (hot pixel) and densely vegetated (cold pixel) surfaces. Also, the hot and cold pixels were suitably situated in the upper and lower quartiles of the LST histogram, respectively. The range of cold pixels variations throughout the study periods was lower compared with the hot pixels (44.2, 55.3, 35.5, 66.5, and 25.2 K for hot pixels against 34.2, 45.7, 25.6, 52.2, and 17 K for cold pixels) as expected, which emanated from the lower fluctuations of temperature over vegetation against the soil. The results were indicative of the better performance of METRIC compared with SEBAL and SEBS with greater values of R2 in all the regions. Therefore, using the introduced method, the expert subjective interference was eliminated and processing time reduced significantly from about 1 h per image to a few minutes.

Effects of unilateral tDCS over left prefrontal cortex on emotion regulation in depression: Evidence from concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most common mood disorder and a primary cause of disability worldwide. MDD symptomatology entails disturbances in emotion regulation, namely one's ability to modify the intensity and duration of emotional reactions towards affective events. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has emerged as a promising treatment for MDD. Yet, positive tDCS outcomes vary across studies, while the precise effects of the procedure for cortical excitability in MDD during emotion regulation remain largely unexplored. Here, we leveraged functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-compatible tDCS technology to examine the functional consequences of a unilateral anodal tDCS montage at 1.5 mA over left PFC (area F3; with the reference electrode over an extracephalic location) for brain activity during an emotion-regulation task in MDD patients and age-matched healthy control subjects. Our results revealed down-regulation of negative emotions in the right amygdala and visual cortex of healthy controls but not MDD patients prior to stimulation, the degree of which correlated with the magnitude of the participants' reappraisal scores. TDCS did not elicit significant changes in neural activation patterns for either group. These findings contribute to the literature on the pathophysiology of MDD by showing that a key disturbance in the disorder entails the ineffective down-regulation of activity not only within the amygdala, but also within visual cortical areas in response to negative information. Further, these results suggest that relative to bifrontal tDCS montages, unilateral stimulation of moderate intensity over left PFC may not be sufficient to elicit therapeutic effects for MDD.

EEG microstate features according to performance on a mental arithmetic task

In this study, we hypothesized that task performance could be evaluated applying EEG microstate to mental arithmetic task. This pilot study also aimed at evaluating the efficacy of microstates as novel features to discriminate task performance. Thirty-six subjects were divided into good and poor performers, depending on how well they performed the task. Microstate features were derived from EEG recordings during resting and task states. In the good performers, there was a decrease in type C and an increase in type D features during the task compared to the resting state. Mean duration and occurrence decreased and increased, respectively. In the poor performers, occurrence of type D feature, mean duration and occurrence showed greater changes. We investigated whether microstate features were suitable for task performance classification and eleven features including four archetypes were selected by recursive feature elimination (RFE). The model that implemented them showed the highest classification performance for differentiating between groups. Our pilot findings showed that the highest mean Area Under Curve (AUC) was 0.831. This study is the first to apply EEG microstate features to specific cognitive tasks in healthy subjects, suggesting that EEG microstate features can reflect task achievement.

Teachers caring for students and students caring for math: The development of culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents' math motivation

This study utilized growth curves and change models to understand the impact of student perceptions of teacher caring on the development of math motivation for an ethnically and linguistically diverse sample of adolescents in middle school (N = 1926) and high school (N = 1531). Using an expectancy-value framework, growth curves revealed declining math motivation for both middle school and high school cohorts. However, perceived teacher caring buffered against these declines and was positively associated with math self-efficacy and subjective task values. Change models revealed that perceived teacher caring at the beginning of the school year increased math motivation by the end of the year. The results shed light on the important role that student-teacher relationships play in influencing math motivation during adolescence.

Quality control of rigid endoscopes: a comparative study between ScopeControl® and surgeons' evaluation.

In central sterile services departments (CSSD), the functionality of rigid endoscopes, which are complex and fragile reusable devices, is usually controlled visually and is considered a complex and subjective task. ScopeControl® was developed to provide an automated quality control of rigid endoscopes by measuring the value of six parameters: viewing angle (VA), field of view (FV), color correctness (CC), light transmission (LT), fibers transmission (FT), and focus (FC). The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of ScopeControl® to pre-emptively identify endoscope defects before the surgeon considers them as defective. The same endoscope was evaluated by surgeons during surgery using a scoring scale as well as the CSSD staff using the ScopeControl® during reprocessing. The ScopeControl® categorized the endoscope into 3 groups: "passed," "in danger," and "failed." Correlations between the surgeon's evaluation and results of the ScopeControl® were calculated. One hundred sixty-six controls were carried out concerning 51 different endoscopes. According to the surgeon's evaluation, 78.9% and 80.7% of controls were considered as satisfactory for image and brightness quality, respectively. Results obtained using ScopeControl® found that 13.3% of controls were considered as "passed," 31.3% "in danger," and 55.4% "failed," with poor correlation with the surgeons' evaluation. LT and FT parameters represented 95.2% of the reasons for failures. The ability of the ScopeControl® to detect endoscope defects earlier than surgeons was validated by tracking the results of endoscopes used and controlled several times. The ScopeControl® achieved an objective and consistent quality control of endoscopes and showed poor correlation with the surgeon's opinion. In practice, the ScopeControl® could avoid the use of defective endoscopes in the surgery unit and thus improve the quality of the surgical procedure.

Музыкальное образование в контексте новых информационных технологий

The article is dedicated to the analysis of forms and methods of application of information technologies in the educational process of children’s art schools in the implementation of programs in the field of musical performance. The article considers the synthesis of the unconditional preservation of the existing traditions of the primary level of the Russian music school and the methodological expediency of using new technologies in the educational process of children’s art schools. Specific software developments, electronic educational resources are proposed for use, the application effect in the educational process is described. The article shows that the introduction of new musical information technologies provides additional opportunities for musicians when working with musical scores, orchestral parts, when performing creative tasks in subjects of the theoretical cycle. The article also discusses and analyzes the interactive educational programs of the series «Playing with Music».

Dual Color Space Guided Sketch Colorization.

Automatic sketch colorization is a challenging task in both computer graphics and computer vision since all the color, texture, shading generation have to be created based on the abstract sketch. Besides, it is a subjective task in painting process, which needs illustrators to comprehend drawing priori (DP), such as hue variation, saturation contrast and gray contrast and utilize them in the HSV color space which is closer to human visual cognition system. As such, incorporating supplementary supervision in the HSV color space may be beneficial to sketch colorization. However, previous methods improve the colorization quality only in the RGB color space without considering the HSV color space, often causing results with dull color, inappropriate saturation contrast, and artifacts. To address this issue, we propose a novel sketch colorization method, dual color space guided generative adversarial network (DCSGAN), that considers the complementary information contained in both the RGB and HSV color space. Specifically, we incorporate the HSV color space to construct dual color spaces for supervising our method with a color space transformation (CST) network that learns transformation from the RGB to HSV color space. Then, we propose a DP loss that enables the DCSGAN to generate vivid color images with pixel level supervision. Additionally, a novel dual color space adversarial (DCSA) loss is designed to guide the generator at global level to reduce the artifacts to meet audiences' aesthetic expectations. Extensive experiments and ablation studies demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over previous state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods.

Motor learning while performing a motor task measured by magnetic resonance imaging: a systematic review

Different variables, such as repetition and cognitive load, may explain the neurophysiological differences observed from one task to another in motor learning. This learning can be measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The aim of this systematic review was to document motor learning by functional magnetic resonance imaging during the performance of different simple or complex motor tasks in healthy subjects. The search for articles was carried out in the MEDLINE, PEDro, CINHAL and EBSCO databases in May 2020. The systematic review followed the PRISMA criteria. Nine studies were selected for a qualitative analysis. The quality of the studies ranged from 5 to 7 points on the PEDro scale. The qualitative analysis shows strong evidence that after repeating a motor task a motor learning process is generated. There is both strong and moderate evidence to show that action observation and sleep restriction are involved in motor learning. The results on sensory discrimination training were controversial. The results show, with high quality evidence, that repetition of a motor task is associated with the learning process, which seems to be related to a thickening of the motor cortex after the intervention measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. These results are not conclusive, owing to the limiting factors of this systematic review.

Теоретико-концептуальний базис управління маркетинговою діяльністю мережі підприємств ресторанного бізнесу

The article is aimed at forming and substantiating the theoretical and conceptual basis for managing the marketing activities of a network of enterprises according to the proposed elements with the possibility of determining parametric characterizations and their implementation in the practical activities of enterprises, including restaurant business establishments. As a result of thorough research of works of domestic and foreign scholars on the theoretical and methodological principles of formation and development of management of marketing activity, the subject, object and main tasks for the network of enterprises are determined. The defined tasks are proposed to be divided into three blocks, for each of them are distinguished key aspects that the network of enterprises should take into account when managing marketing activities. The theoretical and conceptual basis for managing the marketing activities of a network of enterprises, including restaurant business establishments, is developed, which will strengthen the fundamental foundations of marketing as a science and increase the adaptability of the implementation of management of marketing activities of enterprises to the current conditions of their functioning in the market. As a result of the formed theoretical and conceptual basis, the parameters of marketing management for a network of enterprises that can be implemented in the activities of enterprises of most spheres and types of economic activity, including restaurant business establishments, are determined. Further scientific researches will be concerned with the formation of structured methodological principles for improving the efficiency of the management system of marketing activities of the restaurant business network.

Impact of pain on mental effort assessed as cardiovascular reactivity.

Pain typically impairs task performance, increases fatigue, and is associated with behavioral disengagement. Together, this suggests that pain impacts effort, defined as the mobilization of resources to carry out behavior. However, empirical evidence on this issue is lacking. Drawing on motivational intensity theory, this study investigated the impact of pain on effort mobilization during cognitive task performance. We administered individually adjusted painful thermal stimulations during an easy memory task during which we measured effort as cardiovascular reactivity-a valid and objective measure. Control conditions included painful stimulations alone, the memory task alone, and the memory task with nonpainful heat stimulations. We expected pain to increase subjective difficulty due to additional demand on cognitive functioning, and in turn effort according to motivational intensity theory. Effort-related cardiovascular reactivity was predicted to increase along these conditions: pain-alone, task-alone, task with nonpainful stimulations, and the strongest effort when painful stimulations were administered during the task. Overall, the findings offered support to our hypotheses. As predicted, results showed that pain increased subjective task difficulty (P = 0.020). Moreover, most of the effort-related cardiovascular measures showed the expected pattern with the strongest reactivity when painful stimulations were administered during the task compared with the other conditions (p < 0.02). These results are first evidence that pain impacts mental effort assessed as cardiovascular reactivity. We discuss how such extra effort might be related to the persistent feeling of fatigue and behavioral disengagement frequently observed in patients with chronic pain.

Механизмы и закономерности влияния образовательной виртуальной реальности на мышление человека

The article presents the results of experimental researches of influence of educational virtual reality biological subjects in human thinking. The experimental data show significant positive shifts in the general level of thinking of the subject when answering questions on a specific academic subject, which requires a manifestation of mental activity, and also in characteristics of thinking in solving complicated subject tasks (the predicted level of the sought solution, the character of the analysis through synthesis, the character of the “acceptance-rejection” and other tips). The article also explains some of the mechanisms and regularities of influence of virtual reality on the human thinking. It is noted the complexity of the influence of three-dimensional images of virtual reality, a wide of animation and interactivity. Programs in virtual reality ensure the development of formal-logical thinking due to the establishment by the subject of a high degree of connection between the super-images of VR and the corresponding concepts presented in the text-sound accompaniment. As a result of experimental studies and substantiate the conclusion about the possibilities and prospects of application of virtual reality technology in education are presented in the article.