Volitional attention formation in preschoolers

The hypothesis that volitional attention is realized by performing several internal actions in mind was experimentally proved. Volitional attention wa s tested in 29 children 3,9-4,3 years old; Bourdon's test was applied in th ree series. The first one required finding and fixation of all the figures having the same form among 40 different figures. The second and the third s eries required finding and fixation of two types of figures. For the first series it was necessary to remember the form, to compare each figure to the image of given form, to fix identical ones. For the second and the third s eries it was necessary to remember two forms, to compare each given figure to these forms separately or to compare each given figure to both forms sim ultaneously. There were twice as much mistakes in identification with the s econd form as compared to the first. Afterwards the children were taught to compare the figures one by one. The retest has shown great progress in ide ntification of one form in all the series and small progress in identificat ion of the second form in the second and third series.