Perception and understanding of information as determinants of the investigator’s professional competence

Abstract

The experimental study is devoted to solving the problem of perception and understanding by investigators of the National Police of Ukraine of forensic information about offences presented in the form of texts. The expediency of forming the personality of a specialist investigator based on the competence approach is declared, due to which the contradiction between the professionalism of the individual and the professionalism of the activity is eliminated in the educational process. The purpose of the study was to establish correlates of understanding (sensemaking) of the forensic text by investigators in the process of its compression; personal factors that mediate the investigator’s understanding of official information in the text form of the presentation. The methodological tools were based on the method of structural and functional analysis and empirical methods, systematic, teleological, and dialectical approaches that allowed analysing the dynamics of text information transformation and changes in the parameters of its mental reflection in the subject’s thinking. The study established the dynamics of compression of experimental texts, features of the intensity of text compression depending on the time modes of working with it and individual characteristics of the investigator’s cognitive processes – perception, memory, and thinking. The highest intensity of compression of the expanded text and the allocation of significant information is achieved in the conditions of free time working with the text. It is proved that at the initial stage of understanding a text message, the ratio between the main and concretising elements of information is a criterion of competence, and at the final stage of understanding – the intensity of sensemaking. The indicators of text compression intensity are analysed and it is revealed that under the conditions of a given operating mode, the elimination of text elements occurs more intensively than in the conditions of free time mode. It is proved that the ratio between the intensity of compression and the level of text connectivity has direct proportional relationships at all stages of compression. It is established that the process of understanding is significantly influenced by typological features of conceptual and figurative components of memory and thinking. The provisions formulated in the paper will contribute to the search for more effective methods of professional and psychological training of future investigators and improve the psychological support of investigative activities