The concept of high-level and low-level processes in cognitive psychology. S. Olsson’s representational change theory from the position of the level approach
The article presents an analysis of ideas about a low-level and a high-level process in cognitive psychology. Several criteria have been formulated for distinguishing these processes: topographic criterion, information processing vector and mediation of experience, purposefulness, controllability, delay in satisfying needs, genetic criterion. Some researches in psychology of thinking are considered from positions of the selected criteria. An attempt is made to consider the leading theory in problem solving of S. Olsson from the point of view of the high-level processes that underlie the mechanisms for changing the representation of the problem.