Anticipation literally means anticipation, i.e. the ability of a system to, to one degree or another, predict the development of various events, results of actions, phenomena. In psychological science, two aspects of these concepts are distinguished: the ability of an individual to imagine the likely outcome of an action before it is committed, as well as the ability of an individual’s thinking to imagine possible means of solving a problem before its actual resolution; the ability of an individual’s body to prepare to respond to various events before they occur. This expectation is usually manifested by a certain posture or movement.
Anticipation in psychology
When cognitive processes of the psyche are connected with their relationship to time, it usually turns out that perception is connected with the present, the anticipation mechanism with the future, memory with the past.
In the processes of perception that take place in the present, on the one hand, past experience, stored in memory, is always included, on the other hand, anticipation (relation to the future) is always present in perception.
Anticipation is a peculiar phenomenon of anticipatory reflection, which can provide the subject with the opportunity to “look into the future.”
Although the phenomenon of anticipatory reflection refers to the future, it is still necessarily based on lived experience stored in the individual’s memory. It is found in the actual actions of an individual taking place at a certain moment in the present time. What happened and became the past is stored in the individual’s memory. However, such a past is recreated at certain moments in the present.
A prerequisite for the occurrence of the phenomenon of anticipatory reflection is the preservation of past experience in memory. For example, tracking visual or auditory signals shows that anticipation is a necessary condition for performing an action; if for some reason the subject is unable to anticipate changes in the signals being tracked, in such cases such activity is disrupted.
The concept of anticipation combines manifestations of mental abilities for anticipatory reflection. Those. in a broad sense, anticipation is the ability to act and make various decisions with specific spatiotemporal anticipation regarding future expected events.
The following functions of anticipation are distinguished: regulatory, cognitive and communicative. The regulatory function manifests itself in limiting the levels of freedom of the system according to the temporal-spatial structure of the environment. According to the expected changes in the circumstances of the external environment, preventive preparation takes place, the outcome of the results of actions and the construction of its program. This determines the nature and direction of behavior in the situation that has developed. But regulation of activity cannot occur without building a model of the desired future or an acceptor of the outcome of actions, which makes it possible to compare the acquired results of actions with the parameters of the required result. This aspect of regulation is guaranteed by the process of anticipation, because the outcome is a future event in relation to the act. The results of anticipation are included in decision making as necessary and essential components. Therefore, the role of the anticipation process in regulating an individual’s activity and behavior is very important.
Lomov believed that “advanced reflection” can appear in the forms of foresight (extrapolation, forecasting, anticipation) and goal setting. It is goal setting that determines the anticipatory reflection that is included in the individual’s activities. And the goal acts as a proactive reflection of the future outcome of such activity. Those. anticipation is considered to be a proactive reflection of the real course of various circumstances, taken without regard to the individual. That is, the individual acts as an observer.
According to Fadeev, anticipation in activity captures the following aspects of the development of situations: probable options, transformation of conditions, probable options for constructing executive actions, variations in the assessment of probable outcomes, probable options for adjusting the model of circumstances and the program of executive actions.
Anticipation takes part in the selection of information in the processes of memorization and perception. Lomov believed that the process of memorization is not a mechanical recording of what affects an individual at a certain moment; it, out of necessity, includes a selection of perceived information. The leading role in the processes of selecting information for the memorization process is played by plans and predictions made by the individual in the process of his behavior.
Forecasting is included in almost all cognitive processes, therefore anticipation is considered an “end-to-end” mental process.
Gellerstein designated the manifestations of anticipation processes in anticipation of the actions of other individuals, which is based on conscious (or not always conscious) knowledge of emotions, logic and the activities resulting from them.
There is also anticipatory imagination. It underlies such an important and necessary ability of an individual - the ability to predict future events and the results of actions. Such imagination is internally inextricably linked with the composition of each individual activity. In conditions when stimulation by one of the interchangeable mechanisms is insufficient, activation of the imagination occurs. An infinite number of new combinations are compiled from previously accumulated information. The generator of such combinations can be the active zones of our subconscious. But such generators will not be random, but will have a thematic orientation to the current moment of perception. An event that is imagined has a physical effect. For example, when imagining heavy physical activity, the heart may begin to beat more delicately.
Anticipation is directly related to personal properties. A direct relationship will be the connection between predictive competence and personal qualities that ensure the success of adaptation processes (sociability, balance). And the connection between such competence and personal qualities that are responsible for the instability of the mental sphere (depression, neuroticism, aggressiveness, lability) will be the opposite. Thus, undeveloped anticipation mechanisms may indicate probable disturbances in the individual’s mental adaptability systems. In mentally unhealthy or neurotic individuals, such mechanisms will be disrupted.
