Actualization of human potential, its continuous self-development and improvement in the rapidly changing social, economic, technological, political space set new benchmarks for the state youth policy, associated, on the one hand, with the identification of personal resources, on the other hand, with improving their quality, which directs close attention to the development of appropriate conditions primarily in the educational space, which determines and directs the situation In this regard, the focus of the educational space on the actualization of the scientific potential of students, the development of their skills and skills of research activity, which requires a special organization of thought activity of students, focused on innovation and creativity. This fact has determined the problem of current research, which is to study the nature of the influence of innovation-oriented mental activity on the development of an individual’s scientific potential. The purpose of research is to study the specifics of the influence of innovation-oriented mental activity on the development of an individual’s scientific potential. The research objective is to study the specifics of the influence of innovation-oriented thinking activity on the development of scientific potential of personalityт. The study used the method of ascertaining experiment, during which the distinctive characteristics in the manifestation of the scientific potential of students’ personalities depending on the level of education were studied and comprehended, the resources for updating this phenomenon were identified, and the influence of the parameters of innovation-oriented mental activity of students on their scientific potential was shown. The sample consisted of 233 respondents, including 110 high school students and 123 university students, of whom 59% were female and 41% were male, the average age of the respondents was 17.4 years. The obtained empirical results were processed in the program "IBM SPSS Statistics 23" using nonparametric criteria of Kruskal–Wallis, Mann–Whitney, Spearman, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and multiple regression analysis. Results: 1) students with more pronounced scientific potential of personality are characterized by a tendency to theoretical thinking, creative approach to solving problem-solving tasks, development of innovation-oriented ideas, in contrast to students with unexpressed or poorly developed scientific potential of personality; 2) parameters of scientific potential of personality are manifested unevenly at different levels of education: the resources of development in high school students are indicators of motivational component of scientific potential of personality, in university students strengthened the scientific potential of personality; 3) parameters of scientific potential of personality are manifested unevenly at different levels of education. Conclusion: innovation-oriented thinking activity is a psychological condition for the development of scientific potential of the personality.