According to the degree of novelty of the product obtained as a result of thinking, productive and reproductive thinking are distinguished. They are very interconnected: without relying on previous experience and knowledge, it is difficult to create something new; To go beyond what has been learned, one must first study. Let's talk a little more about each.
Productive Thinking
Thinking, as a result of which a new product appears, which ultimately affects the development of the mind, is considered to be productive thinking. Its fruits are the deep assimilation of knowledge, and their application in practice, in new conditions. The result of productive thinking is the emergence of some new product of thinking - hence the name. Productive thinking is distinguished by the specificity of formulations. For example, the difference between "I will run in the morning" and "I will go for a run tomorrow" is that the first statement is general, while the second is a specific intention, being productive.
Productive thinking allows you to deeply and quickly assimilate knowledge, transfer it to new conditions, independently solve emerging new problems, without resorting to borrowing ready-made solutions from outside. The apotheosis of productive thinking is creative thinking.
Productive thinking leads to the emergence of new knowledge, forming a new system of connections, which, in turn, will then help in solving similar problems. The next step will be the assimilation, awareness of the found way to solve the problem, analysis, verification - all this happens on the basis of reproductive thinking. As you can see, these two types of thinking are very closely interconnected, and productive thinking is based on reproductive.
reproductive thinking
Thinking, the end result of which is the assimilation of information and its reproduction in such situations, is considered to be reproductive. Without forming new knowledge, reproductive thinking performs a different role: it allows one to assimilate basic knowledge and provides, on its basis, the solution of familiar problems. Understanding new material, its consolidation and application is the scope of reproductive thinking. For its use, of course, the presence of a basic level of knowledge is assumed, and the possibilities of applying reproductive thinking are directly proportional to this level. It can be said that reproductive thinking also plays an important role in solving new problems, since if an unsuccessful attempt to solve a new problem using known methods arises, a problem situation arises, activating productive thinking, that is, the search for new solutions.
And to what kind of thinking should we attribute the empty thoughts inherent in “inner chatter” (the very one that fills our time and creates the illusion of being busy, although, in fact, it simply steals this very time); oppressive thoughts, taking away strength and devoid of expediency, empty daydreaming? These are all examples of unproductive thinking, which is also part of our lives. If you recognize and control the process of thinking, then you can learn to manage it.
Try to think - no matter what - in such a way as to give yourself strength, believe in yourself, learn at least a little, but really useful for you. Specifically. For example, put your desktop in order (after all, this will help streamline your thoughts), or stop looking for your (someone else's) fault in everything that happens, or plan your day, or something else specific. If you're thinking about something, that's great! Do you want to change something? Great, but if nothing specific, then it's better to do something specific and useful.
Development of productive thinking
As we have said, productive thinking is useful when solving important issues: with its help, we can achieve much more meaningful results. How to achieve the development of productive thinking?
Learn to formulate your affairs specifically: not “improve your posture”, but “do three exercises in the morning to improve your posture.” Not "go to bed on time", but "tonight go to bed at 22.00". Not "tidy up your desk", but "tidy up your desktop today".
Make it a habit to ask yourself these questions:
- Is there a need to change something (in this or that case)?
- How can I do that?
- What conditions must be met for this?
- In what order?
Make your day (your life) more organized, plan and carry out your plans.
To learn from those who managed to organize their affairs, their living space.
Think positive: do not waste time and energy on the negative. Something went wrong? This is also a useful experience. We learn a lesson, thank for it and move on!
Take care of the harmonious development of different components of thinking. Let us recall the words of Edward Bono, a British writer, psychologist and recognized expert in the field of creative thinking: “Without the ability to think, a person is not able to control his destiny.”
Everything related to improving brain function is directly related to improving thinking. It is very useful to train the cognitive functions of the brain on.
We wish you success in self-development!
creative graphics design training
Human thinking includes mental operations of various types and levels. First of all, their cognitive significance can be quite different. Many scientists distinguish between different levels of thought depending on any forms, signs, criteria, etc.
In the psychological literature, three types of thinking in its elementary forms are distinguished, and several “paired” classifications are also used. In general, the relationship between different types of thinking has not yet been identified. However, the main thing is clear: the term "thinking" in psychology refers to qualitatively heterogeneous processes.
Thus, it is possible to distinguish the classification of types of thinking according to different criteria. The given classification is allocated conditionally and is not complete. Since all of the listed types of thinking in humans coexist in complex relationships and can be represented in the same activity (see Fig. 1). However, depending on its nature and ultimate goals, one or another type of thinking dominates. According to the degree of their complexity, according to the requirements that they place on the intellectual and other abilities of a person, all these types of thinking are not inferior to each other.
Rice. one
As shown in fig. 1, in thinking as in the process of generalized and mediated cognition of reality, its productive and reproductive components are intertwined in a contradictory dialectical unity, and their share in a particular mental activity can be different. Under the influence of the ever-increasing demands of life on its creative component, it became necessary to single out special types of thinking - productive and reproductive.
It should be noted that in Soviet literature there is an objection to the allocation of such species, since any process of thinking is productive. However, most psychologists who study thinking consider it appropriate to distinguish these types (P.P. Blonsky, N.A. Menchinskaya, Ya.A. Ponomarev, O.K. Tikhomirov).
In the literature, these types (sides, components) of mental activity are called differently. As synonyms for the concept of "productive thinking" they use the terms: creative thinking, visual-figurative, independent, heuristic, creative, artistic, lateral, unconventional. Synonyms for reproductive thinking are the terms: reproducing (non-creative) thinking, verbal-logical, visual-effective, rational, receptive, discursive, template, etc. In this work, the terms productive and reproductive thinking are used.
Productive thinking is characterized by a high degree of novelty of the product obtained on its basis, its originality. This thinking appears when a person, having tried to complete a task based on its formal logical analysis with the direct use of methods known to him, is convinced of the futility of such attempts and he has a need for new knowledge that allows him to complete the task: this need ensures high activity. subject performing the task. Awareness of the need itself speaks of the creation of a problem situation in a person.
Finding what is sought presupposes the discovery of signs unknown to the subject, essential for fulfilling the task of relations, regular connections between signs, those methods and techniques by which they can be found. A person is forced to act in conditions of uncertainty, to outline and try a number of possible options for implementation, to make a choice between them, sometimes without having sufficient grounds for this. He is looking for a key to a solution based on hypotheses and their testing, i.e. methods rely on a certain foresight of what can be obtained as a result of transformations. An essential role in this is played by generalizations, which make it possible to reduce the amount of information on the basis of the analysis of which a person comes to the discovery of new knowledge, to reduce the number of operations carried out in this case, "steps" to achieve the goal.
As emphasized by L.L. Gurov, it is very fruitful in finding a way to solve a problem when performing tasks is its meaningful, semantic analysis, aimed at revealing the natural relations of objects in a task. In it, an essential role is played by the figurative components of thinking, which allow you to directly operate with these natural relations of objects. They represent a special, figurative logic, which makes it possible to establish connections not with two, as in verbal reasoning, but with many links of the analyzed situation, to act, according to L.L. Gurova, in multidimensional space.
In studies conducted under the direction of S.L. Rubinstein puts forward "analysis through synthesis" as an effective technique used in productive thinking. On the basis of such an analysis, the desired property of an object is revealed when the object is included in the system of connections and relations in which it more clearly reveals this property. The found property opens a new circle of connections and relations of the object with which this property can be correlated. Such is the dialectic of creative cognition of reality.
In this process, as many researchers note, there is often an outwardly sudden vision of a solution - insight, "aha-experience", and it often occurs when a person was not directly involved in solving a problem when performing a task. In reality, such a decision is prepared by past experience, depends on the previous analytic-synthetic activity and, above all, on the level of verbal-logical conceptual generalization reached by the decisive one. However, the process of searching for a solution to a large extent is carried out intuitively, under the threshold of consciousness, not finding its adequate reflection in the word, and that is why its result, "breaking through" into the sphere of consciousness, is recognized as an insight, supposedly not related to the activity previously carried out by the subject. aimed at discovering new knowledge.
Although thinking as a process of generalized and mediated cognition of reality always includes elements of productivity, its share in the process of mental activity can be different. Where the share of productivity is high enough, one speaks of productive thinking proper as a special kind of mental activity. As a result of productive thinking, something original arises, fundamentally new for the subject, i.e., the degree of novelty here is high. The condition for the emergence of such thinking is the presence of a problem situation that contributes to the awareness of the need to discover new knowledge, stimulating the high activity of the subject solving the problem.
The novelty of the problem dictates a new way to solve it: spasmodicity, the inclusion of heuristic, "exploratory" tests, the great role of semantics, meaningful analysis of the problem. In this process, along with verbal-logical, well-conscious generalizations, intuitive-practical generalizations are very important, which at first do not find their adequate reflection in the word. They arise in the process of analyzing visual situations, solving specific practical problems, real actions with objects or their models, which greatly facilitates the search for the unknown, but the process of this search itself is outside the clear field of consciousness, it is carried out intuitively.
Weaving into conscious activity, being sometimes extended, in time, often very long, the process of intuitive-practical thinking is realized as an instant act, as an insight due to the fact that the result of the decision first “breaks through” into consciousness, while the path to it remains outside. it is realized on the basis of subsequent more detailed, conscious mental activity.
As a result of productive thinking, the formation of mental neoplasms occurs - new communication systems, new forms of mental self-regulation, personality traits, her abilities, which marks a shift in mental development.
So, productive thinking is characterized by the high novelty of its product, the originality of the process of obtaining it, and, finally, a significant influence on mental development. It is a decisive link in mental activity, as it provides a real movement towards new knowledge.
From a psychological point of view, there is no fundamental difference between the productive thinking of a scientist who discovers objectively new laws of the world around us that are not yet known to mankind, and the productive thinking of a student who makes a discovery of something new only for himself, since the basis is general mental laws. However, the conditions for the search for new knowledge are different for them, as is the level of mental activity leading to discovery.
In order to somehow designate these differences, most researchers prefer to use the term "productive thinking" in relation to this type of thinking of schoolchildren, and the term "creative thinking" denotes the highest stage of mental activity carried out by those who discover fundamentally new knowledge for humanity, create something original, unparalleled.
Psychologists have spent a lot of effort and time to find out how a person solves new, unusual, creative tasks. However, there is still no clear answer to the question of the psychological nature of creativity. Science has only a few data that make it possible to partially describe the process of solving such problems by a person, to characterize the conditions that facilitate and hinder finding the right solution.
One of the first who tried to formulate creative thinking was J. Gilford. He believed that the "creativity" of thinking is associated with the dominance of four features in it:
A. Originality, non-triviality, unusualness of the ideas expressed, a pronounced desire for intellectual novelty. A creative person almost always and everywhere seeks to find his own solution, different from others.
B. Semantic flexibility, i.e. the ability to see an object from a new angle of view, to discover its new use, to expand the functional application in practice.
B. Image adaptive flexibility, i.e. the ability to change the perception of an object in such a way as to see its new sides, hidden from observation.
D. Semantic spontaneous flexibility, i.e. the ability to produce a variety of ideas in an uncertain situation, in particular one that does not contain guidelines for these ideas.
Subsequently, other attempts were made to define creative thinking, but they brought little new to its understanding, which was proposed by J. Gilford.
E. Bono offers a different interpretation of creative thinking. He presents it as a special kind of non-template (lateral)
thinking that aims at new ideas. In some cases, the results of out-of-the-box thinking are ingenious creations, in others they are nothing more than a new way of looking at things, and therefore something less significant than genuine creativity. In most cases, creative thinking needs talent to manifest itself, while out-of-the-box thinking is available to anyone who is interested in getting new ideas.
E. Bono also divides stereotyped and non-standard thinking as productive and reproductive. He argues that the difference between the two is that in pattern thinking, logic governs the mind, while in non-pattern thinking, it serves it.
Creative thinking is characterized by the fact that it gives new, hitherto unknown results. At the same time, the opinion is expressed that the novelty of the products of thinking is a necessary but insufficient indicator of creative thinking. Thus, the question of new definitions of the difference between creative and non-creative thinking arises. A distinction is often made between these thought processes: non-creative (schematic) thinking is expressible with the help of an algorithm, while creative thinking is non-algorithmic.
However, most psychologists consider it appropriate to single out the types of thinking - productive and reproductive.
Characterized by less productivity, reproductive thinking, nevertheless, plays an important role in both cognitive and practical human activities. On the basis of this type of thinking, the solution of problems of a structure familiar to the subject is carried out. Under the influence of the perception and analysis of the conditions of the task, its data, the desired, functional links between them, previously formed systems of links are updated, providing a correct, logically justified solution to such a task, its adequate reflection in the word.
Reproductive thinking is of great importance in the educational activities of schoolchildren. It provides an understanding of new material when it is presented by a teacher or in a textbook, the application of knowledge in practice, if this does not require their significant transformation, etc. The possibilities of reproductive thinking, first of all, are determined by the presence of an initial minimum of knowledge in a person; research is easier to develop than productive thinking, and at the same time plays a significant role in solving new problems for the subject. In this case, it appears at the initial stage, when a person tries to solve a new problem for him using methods known to him and is convinced that familiar methods do not ensure his success. Awareness of this leads to the emergence of a "problem situation", i.e. activates productive thinking, which ensures the discovery of new knowledge, the formation of new systems of connections, which later will provide him with the solution of similar problems. As already noted, the process of productive thinking is spasmodic, part of it is carried out subconsciously, without adequate reflection in the word. First, its result finds expression in the word ("Aha! Found! Guessed!"), And then - the path to it.
Awareness of the solution found by the subject, its verification and rationale are again carried out on the basis of reproductive thinking. Thus, real activity, the process of independent cognition of the surrounding reality, is the result of a complex interweaving, interaction of reproductive and productive types of mental activity.
The productivity of thinking is characterized by the ability to create a product with a high degree of novelty, the originality of the process of obtaining it and a significant impact on mental development. It provides independent problem solving, deep assimilation of knowledge; connects theory with practice and is conditioned by practical tasks. The main sign of productive mental actions is the possibility of obtaining new knowledge in the process itself, spontaneously, and not borrowing from outside.
It is important to create something of your own, unlike anything else, without blindly obeying authorities, to go further, to strive for a constructive way to solve the problem you see. "How" is creativity. It is important to want to go beyond the grid, the schema. For example, "I can't" is also a kind of lattice. Productivity depends on the degree of formation of the ability “I want to work well” and on disobedience to the opinion “I can’t work well”. Thanks to this, the negative impact of evaluation on creativity is overcome. By working for himself, a person purifies himself and brings good to society. N. Berdyaev, considering the dilemma "world or creativity", emphasized the value of the ability to feel oneself. Why pretend to agree if you don't agree? Creativity does not forgive stops. The worst stop is apathy.
Despite doubts, A. Einstein not only sympathized with, but also assisted M. Wertheimer in the knowledge of productive thinking and, starting from 1916, spent hours telling him about the dramatic events that culminated in the creation of the theory of relativity. The psychologist presented the "titanic thought process" as a drama in 10 acts. Its "participants" were: the origin of the problem; persistent focus on its solution; understanding and misunderstanding, which caused a depressed state, up to despair; findings, hypotheses, their mental playback; identification of contradictions and search for ways to overcome them. All this happened against the background of comprehension, rethinking and transformation of the initial problem situation and its elements and continued until the picture of the new physics was built. The thinking process took seven years. The main thing during this period was “a sense of direction, of direct movement towards something concrete. Of course, it is very difficult to express this feeling in words; but it was definitely present and must be distinguished from later reflections on the rational form of the decision. Undoubtedly, there is always something logical behind this direction; but I have it in the form of some kind of visual image” (A. Einstein). The psychologist N. Akh, a representative of the Würzburg school, called the orientation proceeding from the task, which streamlines the process of thinking, the determining trend, and O. Seltz studied the role of intellectualized (non-sensory) visual representations - images that play the role of plastic tools of productive thinking.
Thinking in the course of reasoning extracts more and more new data that go beyond the initial conditions and, using them, comes to ever new conclusions due to the fact that including the objects of the initial positions in all new connections, it, as if turning them each time with a new side, opens and draws from them all the new properties and relationships. This is the source of the "productivity" of thinking (S.L. Rubinshtein). The productivity of thinking is the possession of techniques for constructing new ways of solving problems. (E.N. Kabanova-Meller, E.K. Osipova, Z.A. Reshetova). An important feature of such techniques is the ease of emergence of new trains of thought.
Productivity is measured by the quantity and quality of ideas put forward in response to a particular question. The developed practical thinking of a professional is distinguished by high productivity. It is typical for him to invent new ideas, plans, methods and techniques, to solve new creative problems. The variety of tasks to be solved leads to the creation of various products of mental activity. Continuous improvement is a violation of norms, since there is no norm for the new. A productive way of solving leads to the generation of new knowledge about the content of the problem, as well as about an adequate way to transform it into the required result.
Tasks
- 1. The group is divided into pairs. The goal of one student from a pair is to get to know a partner and find out the intended name. The purpose of the other is to avoid acquaintance.
- 2. Model the pose (facial expressions, gait...) of the group member in such a way that the person's character is shown in this pose.
- 3. The group is divided into pairs. The participants of each pair sit down at the table opposite each other so that the first one cannot see what the second one writes (draws). The second draws a simple geometric figure on paper and gives the first only verbal instructions, telling him how to reproduce the drawing. The second can use words like left, right, round, straight, up, down, etc., but gestures cannot be used.
tricks
- 1. Formation of the experience of productive, successful problem solving. "In order to make a productive decision, it is necessary to ...".
- 2. Method of five whys: after the fifth question "why?" the subordinate begins to more consciously take responsibility for what is happening.
Although thinking as a process of generalized and mediated cognition of reality always includes elements of productivity, its share in the process of mental activity can be different. Where the share of productivity is high enough, one speaks of productive thinking proper as a special kind of mental activity. As a result of productive thinking, something original arises, fundamentally new for the subject, i.e., the degree of novelty here is high. The condition for the emergence of such thinking is the presence of a problem situation that contributes to the awareness of the need to discover new knowledge, stimulating the high activity of the subject solving the problem.
The novelty of the problem dictates a new way of solving it: spasmodicity, the inclusion of heuristic, search samples, the great role of semantics, meaningful analysis of the problem. In this process, along with verbal-logical, well-conscious generalizations, intuitive-practical generalizations are very important, which at first do not find their adequate reflection in the word. They arise in the process of analyzing visual situations, solving specific practical problems, real actions with objects or their models, which greatly facilitates the search for the unknown, but the process of this search itself is outside the clear field of consciousness, it is carried out intuitively.
Weaving into conscious activity, being sometimes stretched out in time, often very long, the process of intuitive-practical thinking is realized as an instant act, as an insight due to the fact that the result of the decision first breaks into consciousness, while the path to it remains outside of it and is realized. on the basis of subsequent more detailed, conscious mental activity.
As a result of productive thinking, the formation of mental neoplasms occurs - new communication systems, new forms of mental self-regulation, personality traits, her abilities, which marks a shift in mental development.
So, productive thinking is characterized by the high novelty of its product, the originality of the process of obtaining it, and, finally, a significant influence on mental development. It is a decisive link in mental activity, as it provides a real movement towards new knowledge.
From a psychological point of view, there is no fundamental difference between the productive thinking of a scientist who discovers objectively new laws of the world around us that are not yet known to mankind, and the productive thinking of a student who makes a discovery of something new only for himself, since the basis is general mental laws. However, the conditions for the search for new knowledge are very different for them, as is the level of mental activity leading to discovery.
In order to somehow indicate these differences, most researchers prefer to use the term productive thinking in relation to this type of thinking of schoolchildren, and the term creative thinking denotes the highest stage of mental activity carried out by those who discover fundamentally new knowledge for humanity, create something original, which does not have analogue to itself.
With less productivity, reproductive thinking nevertheless, it plays an important role in both cognitive and practical human activities. On the basis of this type of thinking, the solution of problems of a structure familiar to the subject is carried out. Under the influence of the perception and analysis of the conditions of the task, its data, the desired, functional links between them, previously formed systems of links are updated, providing a correct, logically justified solution to such a task, its adequate reflection in the word.
Reproductive thinking is of great importance in the educational activities of schoolchildren. It provides an understanding of new material when it is presented by a teacher or in a textbook, the application of knowledge in practice, if this does not require their significant transformation, etc. The possibilities of reproductive thinking are primarily determined by the presence of an initial minimum of knowledge in a person; is easier to develop than productive thinking, and at the same time plays a significant role in solving new problems for the subject. In this case, it appears at the initial stage, when a person tries to solve a new problem for him using methods known to him and is convinced that familiar methods do not ensure his success. Awareness of this leads to the emergence of a problem situation, i.e., activates productive thinking, which ensures the discovery of new knowledge, the formation of new systems of connections, which will later provide him with the solution of similar problems. As already noted, the process of productive thinking is spasmodic, part of it is carried out subconsciously, without adequate reflection in the word. First, its result finds expression in the word (Aha! Found! Guessed!), And then - the path to it itself.
Awareness of the solution found by the subject, its verification and rationale are again carried out on the basis of reproductive thinking. Thus, real activity, the process of independent cognition of the surrounding reality, is the result of a complex interweaving, interaction of reproductive and productive types of mental activity.
