Visual representation of realities with different ontological status in contemporary primers and ABC books

The article is a comparative analysis of the visual content of the contemporary Russian ABC book and primer for first graders and the analogous Soviet and Russian books of the past century. There is an update of content and form of the ABC book and primer of the new millennium. The electronic version of the printed ABC book and primer and applications for the books on the teaching of reading have appeared. Therefore, it is possible to classify these publications as new media. The content of the current Russian ABC book and primer reflects the trends of postmodern culture and manifests the postmodern worldview. The visual content of contemporary textbooks contributes to design of realities with a different ontological status (psychological, aesthetic, and others). By comparison, the primers of the twentieth century are dominated by the image of “objective” reality. As a consequence, the visual content of the contemporary Russian primers is more complicated than that of the primers of the twentieth century. The increased cognitive complexity of visual texts of modern textbooks places greater demands on the cognitive abilities of students. The article puts forward the suggestion that the polyontic images (recognition of the multiple realities that exist in the mind) of reality in contemporary textbooks create cognitive prerequisites for the assimilation of virtual reality by students.