EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY OF YA. A. PONOMAREV

The main landmarks in scientific activity of Yakov Aleksandrovich Ponomarev - leading researcher of psychology of creativity, talented and inventive experimentalist, prominent theoretician, methodologist and philosopher, who suggested original ideas about the nature of mind, content of such categories as activity, interaction, development etc. are retraced. Ponomarev's study about psychological mechanism of creativity (and behavior) and its central element (ability to operate "in mind"), foundation of PLS principle (Phases-Levels-Stages), development of structure-level conception of psyche organization have general psychological character and significance. Comprehension of psychology of creativity history helped the scientist to advance the theory of stages in psychological knowledge's development, hypothetically assuming the existence and necessity of the third - active-transformative type of knowledge. Enthusiasm, openness to all the new, creative multidirectionality in connection with academic severity and logical consistency in metatheory of mind construction are the distinguished features of Ya.A. Ponomarev as a scientist and thinker.