THE ROLE OF VISION IN HUMAN LIFE

Abstract. The psychology of persons with sensory visual deprivation has attracted the attention of researchers since ancient times and remains relevant to this day. The outstanding Russian scientist L.S. Vygotsky made a great contribution to solving this problem. The importance of vision in the mental development of a child is unique. Violation of his activity causes great difficulties in the child's cognition of the surrounding reality, narrowing social contacts, limiting his orientation and opportunities to engage in many types of activities. The already established connections with the environment are disrupted in the blind.

Keywords: vision, child, visual sensations, visual functions, orientation.

The role of vision in a person's reflection of the surrounding world is exceptionally great. In the course of anthropogenesis, a complex system of analyzers has formed in humans, ensuring the receipt of information necessary for normal life from the outside world. In this system, visual, auditory and tactile-kinesthetic analyzer activity come to the fore. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that in this complex of analyzers, the leading role in the process of sensory reflection belongs to vision.

In order to understand to what extent the sphere of sensory cognition and subsequent levels of reflective activity suffer as a result of complete or partial impairment of the functions of the visual analyzer, it is necessary to understand the functions of vision in human reflective activity.

The human eye has the ability to navigate in the world around it, distinguishing individual objects and spatial relationships between them by their illumination. At the same time, the visual analyzer has an unusually high sensitivity.

Visual sensations and perceptions are of great importance for cognition and practical activity. With the help of vision, a person monitors the correctness of the actions performed. Visual sensations and perceptions are also an inexhaustible source of aesthetic experiences. This is especially true for color vision, which contributes to a better perception of objects.

Observations of blind children indicate a low level of development of their attention, due to the narrowness of interests in the surrounding world, about which they receive only few and scattered information compared to their sighted peers. It should also be noted that reducing the number of irritations with visual disturbances reduces the stability of attention. At the same time, prolonged exposure to auditory stimuli quickly tires the blind and leads to distraction. However, this does not mean that the attention of the blind cannot develop intensively and reach the same level as that of the normally sighted.

With total blindness, the postures and contractions of the facial muscles typical of the state of attention — frowning of the eyebrows, wrinkling of the forehead, fixing the gaze, turning to the object to which attention is directed, etc. — are absent or manifest in a very weakened form. A blind person in a state of attention is characterized by a mask-like facial expression and such a fixed position of the head and body that contributes to the most distinct auditory perception.

It is obvious that partial and even more complete loss of vision entails the most serious and often irreparable losses in the field of sensory reflection. The impossibility or significant limitations of receiving visual stimuli entails deviations in mental development, which in modern psychological literature designated as deprivation damage.

Mental deprivation is a mental state that has arisen as a result of such life situations where the subject is not given the opportunity to meet some of his basic mental needs sufficiently and for a sufficiently long time. Such needs are the need for a certain amount and quality of external stimuli, the need for social ties with parents, peers, the need for conditions for learning and subsequent self-realization, mastering certain social roles.

Consequently, visual impairments entail not only sensory deprivation, but also emotional (affective) and social deprivation. Quite often, with blindness and low vision, neuropsychiatric disorders are observed.

Quantitative changes observed mainly in the field of sensory cognition: visual sensations and perceptions are significantly reduced or completely lost in the blind and visually impaired the number of representations that limit the possibilities of forming images of imagination decreases.

Qualitative features of the psyche of persons with visual impairments are manifested, albeit to varying degrees, in almost all areas of mental activity: the system of interaction of analyzers changes, certain specific features arise in the process of forming images, concepts, speech, the ratio of figurative and conceptual in mental activity is violated, individual changes in the emotional-volitional sphere and some properties are observed personality, orientation activity acquires a specific character.

Complete or partial impairment of visual functions is also reflected in physical development, which is due to the complexity of spatial orientation and the resulting restriction of the blind in freedom of movement. A sedentary lifestyle, in turn, causes muscle lethargy, skeletal deformity, hypofunction of internal organs, etc.

In general, somatic weakness is observed in the blind and visually impaired, posture and gait are disturbed, changes in motor skills are observed — obsessive movements appear (for example, pressure on the eyeballs, shaking of the head, trunk). Hypokinesia is widespread, that is, a decrease in motor activity.