Thinking is the process of processing information by a person and highly developed animals, aimed at establishing connections and relationships between objects or phenomena of the surrounding world.
Thinking is a process of generalized and mediated cognition of reality. Thinking consists in identifying essential (i.e., not given directly, stable, significant for activity, generalized) properties and relationships. The main characteristic of thinking, which distinguishes it from other cognitive processes, is its generalized and mediated nature. Unlike perception and memory, which are aimed at the knowledge of objects and the preservation of their images, the purpose of thinking is to analyze the connections and relationships between objects, as a result of which a person develops a scheme of the situation, develops a plan of action in it.
It is possible to realize the properties and qualities of an object through direct contact with it, as a result of which traces of this object are formed in memory. Those. memory and perception are processes that are directly related to objects. It is impossible to understand the connections between objects and their relations directly. It is also impossible to do this with a one-time contact, which gives, although not always accurately, an idea only of the appearance of the object. For example, in order to find out that it is always cold in winter, it is necessary to observe this phenomenon repeatedly. Only by summarizing the observations, one can speak with confidence about the differences between the seasons.
The fact that the experience of one person may not be enough for an accurate and objective judgment is associated with the search for supra-individual criteria that would confirm the correctness of individual generalizations. Logic is often used as such a criterion, which is transpersonal and represents the crystallization of the experience of many generations. In other types of thinking that are not directly related to logic, a person, in order to prove the objectivity and reliability of his conclusions, turns to other types of individual experience crystallized in culture: art, ethical standards, etc.
In psychology, the concepts of a task and a problem situation are distinguished. Any problem that confronts a person and requires resolution becomes a task, i.e. a task is both a problem from an algebra textbook, and a situation of choosing a profession, and the question of how to distribute the money received, etc. In the event that there is enough data to solve these questions, this is really a task. In the same case, if there is not enough data to solve it, the task turns into a problem situation.
So, if for some reason one of the data is not given in an algebraic problem (for example, the speed of a train), this is a problematic situation. If we do not know well enough the people we have invited to visit and their interests, the task of seating them around the table and organizing a general conversation becomes a problematic situation. In the case of the appearance of new data (in another textbook or after closer communication with the guests), the problematic situation becomes a task.
In terms of psychological structure, objective and subjective tasks are distinguished. An objective task is characterized by set requirements and given conditions (i.e., characteristics that do not depend on the subject). A subjective task is an objective task in the understanding of the subject. It is characterized by the goal that the subject sets for himself, and the means used by him to achieve it.
Types of thinking. mental operations.
Depending on the characteristics under consideration, several classifications of types of thinking are distinguished:
According to the degree of novelty of the product that the subject of knowledge receives:
- Productive
Productive thinking is characterized by the high novelty of its product, the originality of the process of obtaining it, and a significant impact on mental development. The productive thinking of students provides an independent solution of problems new to them, a deep assimilation of knowledge, a fast pace of mastering it, and the breadth of their transfer to relatively new conditions.
In productive thinking, the intellectual abilities of a person, his creative potential are fully manifested. The main sign of productive mental acts is the possibility of obtaining new knowledge in the process itself, that is, spontaneously, and not by borrowing from outside.
- reproductive
Reproductive thinking is less productive, but it plays an important role. On the basis of this type of thinking, the solution of problems of a structure familiar to the student is carried out. It provides an understanding of new material, the application of knowledge in practice, if this does not require their significant transformation.
The possibilities of reproductive thinking are determined by the presence of an initial minimum of knowledge. Reproductive thinking is a type of thinking that provides a solution to a problem, based on the reproduction of methods already known to man. The new task is correlated with the already known solution scheme. Despite this, reproductive thinking always requires the identification of a certain level of autonomy.
By the nature of the flow:
Three signs are usually used: temporal (time of the process), structural (division into stages), level of flow (consciousness or unconsciousness).
- Analytical (logical)
Analytical thinking is deployed in time, has clearly defined stages, and is largely represented in the mind of the thinking person himself.
- intuitive
Intuitive thinking is characterized by the speed of flow, the absence of clearly defined stages, and is minimally conscious.
By the nature of the tasks to be solved:
- theoretical
Theoretical thinking is the knowledge of laws, rules. The discovery of Mendeleev's periodic system is a product of his theoretical thinking. Theoretical thinking is sometimes compared to empirical thinking. The following criterion is used here: the nature of the generalizations with which thinking deals, in one case these are scientific concepts, and in the other, everyday, situational generalizations.
- Practical
The main task of practical thinking is the preparation of the physical transformation of reality: setting a goal, creating a plan, project, scheme. One of the important features of practical thinking is that it unfolds under severe time pressure.
So, for example, for the fundamental sciences, the discovery of a law in February or March of the same year is of no fundamental importance. Drawing up a plan for conducting a battle after it is over makes the work meaningless. In practical thinking, there are very limited possibilities for testing hypotheses. All this makes practical thinking sometimes even more difficult than theoretical thinking.
According to the subordination of the thought process to logic or emotions:
- Rational
Rational thinking is thinking that has a clear logic and goes to the goal.
- Emotional (irrational)
Irrational thinking - incoherent thinking, the flow of thoughts outside of logic and purpose. The process of such irrational thinking is often called feeling. If the girl thought, something seemed to her, and although she does not see clear logic in her reasoning, he can say "I feel." It is especially common when a person wants to believe in his impressions. Moreover, if her impression pleased her or frightened her - there is definitely a feeling.
As examples of irrational thinking, one can cite distorted conclusions that clearly do not reflect reality, as well as exaggeration or understatement of the significance of certain events, personalization (when a person ascribes to himself the significance of events to which, by and large, he has nothing to do) and overgeneralization ( based on one small failure, a person makes a global conclusion for life).
Motivated by the thought process:
- autistic
Autistic thinking is aimed at satisfying the desires of a person. Sometimes the term "egocentric thinking" is used, it is characterized primarily by the inability to accept the point of view of another person. In a healthy person, it manifests itself in the form of fantasies, dreams. The functions of autistic thinking include the satisfaction of motives, the realization of abilities, and inspiration.
- realistic
Realistic thinking is directed mainly to the outside world, to knowledge, and is regulated by logical laws.
By the nature of the logic of knowledge:
The concept of pralogical thinking was introduced by L. Levy-Bruhl. The terms "pralogical" and "logical" Levy-Bruhl meant not successive stages, but coexisting types of thinking. Determining the content of the collective ideas of primitive man, pralogical thinking did not extend to the sphere of personal experience and practical actions. In the course of the historical development of society, which determined the dominance of logical thinking, traces of prelogical thinking are preserved in religion, morality, rituals, etc.
- Boolean
Logical thinking is focused on establishing logical relationships.
- Pralogical
Pralogical thinking is characterized by the incompleteness of the basic logical laws: the existence of cause-and-effect relationships is already recognized, but their essence appears in a mystified form. Phenomena are correlated on the basis of cause - effect and when they simply coincide in time. Participation (complicity) of events adjacent in time and space serves in pralogical thinking as the basis for explaining most of the events occurring in the surrounding world.
At the same time, a person appears to be closely connected with nature, especially with the animal world. Natural and social situations are perceived as processes taking place under the auspices and with the opposition of invisible forces. The product of pralogical thinking is magic as a common attempt in primitive society to influence the world around. Pralogical thinking is characterized by the absence of accidents, imperviousness to criticism, insensitivity to contradictions, unsystematic knowledge.
Genetic classification:
Visual-effective, visual-figurative, verbal-logical thinking form the stages of development of thinking in ontogenesis, in phylogenesis. At present, it has been convincingly shown in psychology that these three types of thinking also coexist in an adult.
- Visual and effective
The main characteristic of visual-effective thinking is reflected in the name: the solution of the problem is carried out with the help of a real transformation of the situation, with the help of an observed motor act, action. Visual-effective thinking also exists in higher animals and has been systematically studied by such scientists as I.P. Pavlov, V. Köhler, and others.
- Visual-figurative
The functions of figurative thinking are associated with the presentation of situations and changes in them that a person wants to receive as a result of his activity, which transforms the situation, with the specification of general provisions. With the help of figurative thinking, the whole variety of various actual characteristics of an object is more fully recreated.
The image can be fixed simultaneous vision of the object from several points of view. A very important feature of figurative thinking is the establishment of unusual, "incredible" combinations of objects and their properties. In contrast to visual-active thinking, in visual-figurative thinking the situation is transformed only in terms of the image.
- Verbal-logical
Reasoning, verbal-logical thinking is singled out as one of the main types of thinking, characterized by the use of concepts, logical constructions, existing, functioning on the basis of language, language means.
Creative / Critical:
Creative and critical thinking are two kinds of thinking of the same person that come into conflict with each other.
- Creative
Creative thinking is thinking, the result of which is the discovery of something new or the improvement of the old.
- critical
Critical thinking checks discoveries, solutions, improvements, finds in them shortcomings, defects and further possibilities of application.
The following mental operations are distinguished:
- Analysis
The division of objects into parts or properties.
- Comparison
Comparison of objects and phenomena, finding similarities and differences between them.
- Synthesis
Combining parts or properties into a whole.
- Abstraction
Mental selection of essential properties and features of objects or phenomena while simultaneously abstracting from non-essential features and properties.
- Generalization
Connecting objects and phenomena together on the basis of their common and essential features.
Experimental studies of animal thinking in behaviorism.
The American scientist Edward Thorndike (1874-1949), along with I. P. Pavlov, is considered the founder of the scientific method for studying the learning process in animals under controlled laboratory conditions. He was the first psychologist to apply an experimental approach to the study of the psyche of animals. This approach was proposed somewhat earlier by the German scientist Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) to study the human psyche, as opposed to the method of introspection prevailing at that time, based on self-observation.
E. Thorndike in his research applied the method of the so-called "problem cells" - universal tasks for animals. An animal (for example, a cat) was placed in a locked box, from which it was possible to exit only by performing a certain action (pressing a pedal or lever that opens the valve). For mice and rats, another type of basic task was invented - a maze.
The behavior of the animals was of the same type, they made many random movements: they rushed in different directions, scratched the box, bit it - until one of the movements accidentally turned out to be successful. On subsequent trials, the animal needed less and less time to find a way out, until it began to operate without error. The data obtained (“learning curve”) gave grounds to assert that the animal operates by “trial and error”, randomly finding the right solution. This was also evidenced by the fact that, having once made the right action, the animal made many mistakes in the future.
Thus, the main conclusion of the experiments was that the formation of new bonds occurs gradually, it takes time and a lot of trials.
Experimental studies of thinking in Gestalt psychology. Stages of development of the thought process.
Gestalt psychologists believed that thinking does not depend on experience, but only on the image of the situation. For scientists who belonged to this direction, the concept of insight became the key, the basis for explaining all forms of mental activity.
The insight phenomenon was discovered by W. Keller while studying the intelligence of chimpanzees. Based on the fact that intellectual behavior is aimed at solving a problem, Keller created such "problem situations" in which the experimental animal had to find workarounds to achieve the goal. The operations that the monkeys performed to solve the problem were called "two-phase", because. consisted of two parts.
In the first part, the monkey had to use one tool to get another one needed to solve the problem (for example, using a short stick that was in a cage, get a long one lying at some distance from the cage). In the second part, the resulting tool was used to achieve the desired goal, for example, to obtain a banana that is far from the monkey.
Thinking was seen not only as the establishment of new connections, but also as a restructuring of the situation. To solve the problem, all objects had to be in the field of view.
Keller's experiments showed that the solution of the problem (restructuring of the situation) does not occur by blindly searching for the right path (by trial and error), but instantly, thanks to spontaneous grasping of relationships, understanding (insight). That. insight was seen as a way to form new connections, a way to solve problems, a way of thinking. Keller argued that at the moment when phenomena enter a different situation, they acquire a new function.
The combination of objects in new combinations associated with their new functions leads to the formation of a new image (gestalt), the awareness of which is the essence of thinking. Keller called this process the restructuring of the gestalt and believed that such a restructuring occurs instantly and does not depend on the past experience of the subject, but only on the ways in which objects are arranged in the field.
The following stages of solving the problem (thinking) were identified:
1) Acceptance of the task and study of conditions.
2) The use of old ways of solving.
3) Latent phase (accompanied by negative emotions).
4) Insight, “aha-reaction” (accompanied by positive emotions).
5) The final stage (obtaining a result, designing a solution to the problem).
K. Dunker conducted experimental studies with adults, during which he offered the subjects to solve various original creative tasks (a task with X-rays). The subjects were asked to voice everything that comes to their mind, the experimenter was in the conditions of interaction with the subjects.
As a result, the main provisions of Keller about solving the problem based on insight and the stages of solving the problem were confirmed. However, according to Duncker, insight is not instantaneous, but pre-arranged. In the process, two types of solution are found: functional and final.
Study of the development of conceptual thinking in the school of L.S. Vygotsky. Methodology of Vygotsky-Sakharov.
Conceptual thinking - (verbal-logical), one of the types of thinking, characterized by the use of concepts, logical constructions. Conceptual thinking functions on the basis of linguistic means and represents the latest stage in the historical and ontogenetic development of thinking.
In the structure of conceptual thinking, various types of generalizations are formed and function. Thinking is seen as a process denounced in words. Thinking without about figurative - in thinking there are no images, there are only words or logical operations. The sequence of mental mental operations is the process of thinking.
The concept is a form of thinking that reflects the essential properties, connections and relationships of objects and phenomena, expressed by a word or a group of words.
N. Akh expressed the idea that thinking is carried out not in images, but in concepts. Adult people have a formed system of concepts, and these concepts are presented in a collapsed form. In his methodology, Ah introduced the method of forming artificial concepts. To do this, he used three-dimensional geometric figures that differ in shape, color, size, weight - a total of 48 figures.
A piece of paper with an artificial word is attached to each figure: large heavy figures are indicated by the word "gatsun", large light ones - "ras", small heavy ones - "taro", small light ones - "fal". The experiment begins with 6 figures, and their number increases from session to session, eventually reaching 48. Each session begins with the fact that the figures are placed in front of the subject, and he must in turn raise all the figures, while reading their names aloud; this is repeated several times.
After that, the pieces of paper are removed, the figures are mixed, and the subject is asked to select the figures on which there was a piece of paper with one of the words, and also to explain why he chose these figures; this is also repeated several times. At the last stage of the experiment, it is checked whether the artificial words have acquired a meaning for the subject: he is asked questions like “What is the difference between “gatsun” and “ras”?” They are asked to come up with a phrase with these words.
L. S. Vygotsky and his collaborator L. S. Sakharov changed Ach's method for the purpose of a deeper study of the meanings of words and the very process of their (meanings) formation. Aha's method did not allow studying this process, since the words were associated with the figures they denoted from the very beginning; “Words do not act from the very beginning as signs; they do not differ fundamentally from the other series of stimuli that appear in experience, from the objects with which they are associated.”
Therefore, while in the Ach method the names of all figures are given from the very beginning, the task is given later, after they have been memorized, in the Vygotsky-Sakharov method, on the contrary, the task is given to the subject at the very beginning, but the names of the figures are not. Figures of various shapes, colors, planar dimensions, and heights are randomly placed in front of the subject; an artificial word is written on the bottom (invisible) side of each figure. One of the figures turns over, and the subject sees its name.
This figure is put aside, and from the rest of the figures the subject is asked to select all on which, in his opinion, the same word is written, and then they are offered to explain why he chose these particular figures and what the artificial word means. Then the selected figures are returned to the remaining ones (except the postponed one), another figure is opened and set aside, giving the subject additional information, and he is again asked to select from the remaining figures all on which the word is written. The experiment continues until the subject correctly selects all the figures and gives the correct definition of the word.
Stages of development of thinking in ontogenesis. Theory of J. Piaget.
The theory of the development of the child's thinking, developed by J. Piaget, was called "operational". An operation is an “internal action, a product of the transformation (“interiorization”) of an external, objective action, coordinated with other actions into a single system, the main property of which is reversibility (for each operation there is a symmetrical and opposite operation.
Characterizing the concept of reversibility, Piaget cites as an example arithmetic operations: addition and subtraction, multiplication and division. They can be read both left to right and right to left, for example: 5 + 3 = 8 and 8 - 3 = 5.
Thinking refers to the rational stage of knowledge. In thinking, human cognition goes beyond sensory perception, reveals essential properties, connections and relationships between objects of the surrounding world. The study of thinking occupies one of the central places in all philosophical teachings, both past and present. Thinking is currently being studied not only by psychology, but also by various other sciences - philosophy, logic, physiology, cybernetics, linguistics.
Thinking is the most generalized and mediated form of mental reflection, establishing a connection and relationship between cognizable objects.
All the material of thought activity receives only from sensory cognition. Immediate impressions of the external world are obtained with the help of various senses. This form of reflection is important and essential, but not sufficient for the regulation of behavior. In order to carry out reasonable activity in the environment, it is necessary to reflect the relationship of objects to each other, which is carried out in the process of thinking. Through sensory cognition, thinking is directly connected with the external world.
Human thinking is qualitatively different from the thinking of animals. The most important distinguishing point is speech and other systems of signs used in this process, with the help of which a person gets the opportunity to significantly expand his modeling abilities. It is thanks to this that human thinking makes it possible to cognize in a generalized and indirect way. Generalizations contributes to the fact that thinking is symbolic, expressed in words. mediation- cognition with the use of aids. The word makes human thinking mediated. Thus, the material basis of thinking is speech. Thought rests on a folded inner speech.
In its function as a regulator of activity, thinking acts as a higher process that unites all human activity. The initial moment of thinking is a problem situation that involves a person in an active thought process. Problem situation- a situation in which there are tasks related to intellectual activity; a kind of conflict between what is given to a person and what he must achieve.
A problem is usually understood as a special kind of intellectual tasks that have the following characteristics:
goal- an indicative basis for solving problems;
conditions, in which this goal is specified;
need in achieving the goal, the insufficiency of standard means of solution arising directly from the conditions.
The driving force of the process of thinking is the emerging contradictions between the end and the means.
The very formulation of the problem is an act of thinking, often it requires a lot of mental work. The first sign of a thinking person is the ability to see the problem where it is. The emergence of questions (which is typical for children) is a sign of the developing work of thought. A person sees the more problems, the larger the circle of his knowledge. Thus, thinking presupposes the presence of some initial knowledge.
A problem situation always arises as a kind of obstacle, a gap in activity. Awareness of the problem situation is the first step in problem solving. On the second - there is a selection of what is known and what is unknown. As a result problem turns into a problem . In the third stage, there is search area limitation . On the fourth - appear hypotheses as assumptions about how to solve a problem . The fifth stage is realization of the hypothesis , and the sixth - her verification . If the test confirms the hypothesis, then the solution is implemented.
The thought process is a process that is preceded by awareness of the initial situation (problem conditions), which is conscious and purposeful, operates with concepts and images, and which ends with some result..
Thinking includes a number operations:
comparison– establishment of similarities and differences between objects;
synthesis- the operation of the transition from parts to the whole;
analysis- a mental operation of dividing a complex object into its constituent parts or characteristics;
generalization- mental association of objects or phenomena according to their common and essential features;
abstraction- a mental operation based on the allocation of essential properties and relationships of the subject and abstraction from others, non-essential.
With the help of these operations, penetration is carried out deep into one or another problem facing a person, the properties of the elements that make up this problem are considered, and a solution to the problem is found.
To forms of thinking include concept, judgment and inference.
concept- a form of thinking that reflects the essential properties, connections and relationships of objects and phenomena, expressed by a word or a group of words. Concepts can be general and singular, concrete and abstract.
Judgment- a form of thinking that reflects the relationship between objects and phenomena; assertion or denial of something. Judgments can be true or false
inference- a form of thinking in which a certain conclusion is made on the basis of several judgments. Inferences can be inductive (from the particular to the general) and deductive (a logical conclusion in the process of thinking from the general to the particular).
The study and description of thinking involves the definition of its various types. Selection kinds of thinking produced for various reasons.
By form allocate visual-effective, visual-figurative, abstract-logical thinking.
Visual-effective thinking is the most elementary form of thinking that arises in practical activity and is the basis for the formation of more complex forms of thinking. Visual-effective thinking is a type of thinking based on the direct perception of objects in the process of actions with them.
Visual-figurative is a type of thinking characterized by reliance on representations and images.
Abstract-logical - a kind of thinking, carried out with the help of logical operations with concepts.
By the nature of the tasks to be solved distinguish theoretical and practical thinking. Theoretical thinking is the knowledge of laws and rules. The main task of practical thinking is the development of means for the practical transformation of reality: setting a goal, creating a plan, project, scheme.
By degree of deployment distinguish intuitive and analytical (discursive) thinking. Analytical thinking is deployed in time, has clearly defined stages, is represented in the mind of the thinking person himself. Intuitive thinking is characterized by the speed of flow, the absence of clearly defined stages, and is minimally conscious.
By degree of product novelty and originality allocate creative (productive) and reproductive (reproducing) thinking.
Thus, to describe the manifestations of thinking, psychology uses the definition of thinking in a broad sense: it is an active cognitive activity of the subject, necessary for its full orientation in the surrounding natural and social world. To study the specific psychological mechanisms of thinking in psychology, they talk about thinking in the narrow sense as a process of solving problems.
Intelligence (mind) - the highest form of theoretical exploration of reality, manifested in a person's ability to think. The concept of intellect must be distinguished from the concept of the mind.
Intelligence - general cognitive ability, which determines a person's readiness to assimilate and use knowledge and experience, as well as to rational behavior in problem situations.
MOSCOW CITY PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY Faculty of Educational Psychology Department of Developmental Psychology |
| COURSE WORK On the specialty 030301 "Psychology" |
THINKING: BASIC TYPES OF THINKING AND THOUGHT OPERATIONS Group students Po3 Komogorova L.V. supervisor Associate Professor Barabanova V.V. Moscow Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….3 1. Definition of thinking and classification of its types ... 5 1.1 The concept and types of thinking ... 5 1.2 Features of creative thinking… 7 2. Basic operations as aspects of mental activity ... 14 2.1 Comparison, analysis and synthesis… 14 2.2 Abstraction and Generalization… 16 3. Development of thinking… 21 Conclusion… 26 List of references… 27 |
Introduction
Life constantly confronts a person with acute and urgent tasks and problems. Their appearance means that in the reality around us there is a lot of unknown, incomprehensible, unforeseen, hidden, requiring from a person a deeper knowledge of the world, the discovery of new processes, properties and relationships of people and things in it. The Universe is unlimited, and therefore the process of its cognition is unlimited. Thinking is always directed to the boundlessness of the unknown, the new. Each person makes many discoveries in his life, and not always these discoveries are for all of humanity, sometimes these discoveries are only for himself.
First of all, thinking is a process of human cognitive activity, which is characterized by a generalized and indirect reflection of reality. Thinking is the object of study of many sciences. So in philosophy, the possibilities and ways of knowing the world with the help of thinking are explored; in logic - the main forms of thinking, such as judgment, concept, inference; sociology examines the processes of the historical development of thinking depending on the social structure of various societies; physiology studies the brain mechanisms by which the acts of thinking are realized; cybernetics considers thinking as an information process, comparing the processes of human thinking with the work of a computer.
From the position of psychology, thinking is considered as a cognitive activity, and thinking is differentiated into types depending on the level of generalization and the nature of the means used, their novelty for the subject, the degree of his activity and the adequacy of thinking to reality. Thinking is studied using objective methods (observation, conversation, experiment, study of the activity of thinking products). Elementary thinking already arises in animals and ensures the rapid adaptation of the organism to the requirements of the environment.
Often, thinking unfolds as a process of solving a problem in which conditions and requirements are highlighted. The most important role in mental activity is played by motives and emotions. Thinking is studied in the context of interpersonal relationships of people of their upbringing and education.
Thinking arises on the basis of human practical activity from sensory cognition and goes far beyond its limits.
Thinking serves as a link with the external world and is its reflection through sensations and perceptions. Undoubtedly, sensations and perceptions every day give a person the sensory picture of the world he needs, but this is not enough for a more comprehensive and penetrating knowledge of the world.
In the process of mental activity, a person uses the data of sensations, perceptions and ideas and at the same time goes beyond the limits of sensory cognition, i.e. begins to realize such phenomena of the external world, their properties and positions, which are not directly given at all in perceptions, and therefore are not observable at all. Thinking begins where sensory cognition is no longer sufficient or even powerless. Thinking is an integral part and a special object of a person's self-consciousness, the structure of which includes understanding oneself as a subject of thinking, differentiation of "one's own" and "alien" thoughts, awareness of an unresolved problem as one's own, awareness of one's attitude to the problem. The process of thinking is, first of all, analysis, synthesis and generalization.
1. Definition of thinking and classification of its types
1.1 Concept and types of thinking
To give an exhaustive definition of thinking, limiting it to a simple or single sentence, is almost impossible. However, thinking can be described from different angles, using a few sentences for this.
1. Thinking is the process of solving problems, where a task is understood as a goal that can be achieved by transforming given conditions.
2. Thinking is the knowledge of the surrounding reality in those of its properties that are not directly perceived by a person with the help of the senses (for example, knowledge of the structure of the microcosm or the chemical composition of a substance).
3. Thinking is a generalized knowledge of reality by a person, that is, the acquisition of knowledge about it in the form of concepts and ideas (as opposed to its specific knowledge through direct perception with the help of the senses).
4. Thinking is a mediated knowledge of the world, that is, obtaining knowledge about it with the help of special means: the logic of thinking, tools, instruments, machines, etc.
5. Thinking in its abstract expression is the movement of ideas, revealing the essence of things. The result of thinking as a process is not an image, but some thought or idea.
6. Thinking is a special kind of theoretical and practical activity, involving a system of mental and practical actions and operations of an orienting-research, transformative and cognitive nature included in it.
From the above rather complex and versatile descriptive definition of thinking, it follows that a person has many different types of thinking. They, in turn, can be distinguished and divided according to the following grounds:
1) by product;
2) by the nature of the actions with the help of which thinking is realized as a cognitive process;
3) on the use of logic;
4) by the type of tasks to be solved;
5) by levels of development and by a number of other features.
According to the product, thinking can be divided into theoretical and practical, creative and non-creative.
Theoretical is thinking, with the help of which some knowledge is derived from other knowledge by operating with concepts in the content of which this knowledge is presented.
Practical is thinking that involves real actions of a person with material objects. In such thinking, a person sets and solves practical problems, which include many problems, with the exception of those that are solved with the help of theoretical thinking.
Creative thinking (sometimes called productive) is thinking, as a result of which a person receives new knowledge, invents or creates something that no one has yet invented or created before him.
Non-creative (reproductive) is thinking that reveals already known knowledge to a person. For example, if a student in a mathematics lesson at school solves ordinary educational, training tasks, then he will undoubtedly engage in thinking. However, his thinking in this case does not reveal anything new and is therefore called reproductive thinking.
According to the nature of the actions included in the process of thinking, the following types of it are distinguished:
1) thinking done in the mind (with the help of actions with images or concepts);
2) thinking done with the help of practical actions.
According to the use of logic, thinking is divided into logical and intuitive.
Logical is a detailed, strictly sequential thinking, during which a person repeatedly refers to the use of logical operations and inferences, and the course of this thinking can be traced from beginning to end and checked for its correctness, correlating with the known requirements of logic.
Intuitive thinking is called thinking, in which a person in search of truth or on the way to the intended goal is guided not by logic, but by what is called common sense. The basis of common sense is a special kind of feeling that tells a person that he is on the right path. An intuitively thinking person cannot always explain how he came to this or that decision, he is not able to substantiate it, but, nevertheless, the solutions he found turn out to be correct no less often than the solutions offered by a logically thinking person.
According to the type of tasks being solved, thinking can be divided into types, guided, in turn, by the activities in which the corresponding tasks arise. So, for example, one can single out mathematical, technical, physical, chemical, psychological and many other similar types of thinking. Their specificity lies in the fact that in order to solve the corresponding tasks, a person needs to be well versed in this area of professional activity.
By levels (genesis, sequence of appearance in the process of intellectual development of a person), the following types of thinking can be distinguished: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical.
1.2 Features of creative thinking
Increased interest and close attention of psychologists has always caused and still causes the creative thinking of a person. Scientists are interested in its nature, difference from other types of thinking, origin and development.
Creative is not necessarily only one of the previously identified types of thinking, for example, verbal-logical. Other types of thinking, such as practical, visual-figurative, can also be creative.
The definition of thinking as creative depends on in relation to what it is evaluated as such: creative for a given person does not necessarily act as something new for all people.
Creative thinking by itself, outside a creatively tuned personality, does not exist, and its characteristics necessarily include the individual properties of a creative personality, such that make a person prone to creativity. This fact has long been noticed by many psychologists.
One of the first psychologists who began experimental research on creative thinking was the German scientist M. Werthheimer. He came up with a number of problems with which you can experimentally explore this type of thinking. Later, the number of such tasks increased significantly, and in modern psychology there are already dozens of them. Let's get acquainted with some of those tasks that are used in the practice of studying creative thinking.
Task 1. Destroy the tumor (indicated by a dot inside the circle) without damaging healthy tissues (at high beam intensity, the tumor is destroyed, but healthy brain tissue is damaged).
Task 2. Construct four equilateral rectangles from six matches.
Task 3. Cross out nine points with one broken line, including no more than four segments.
Task 4. What unites the figures depicted on the left?
All these and other tasks used in the study of creative thinking have a common feature associated specifically with creative thinking: for their correct solution, it is necessary to apply an unconventional way of thinking, going beyond the visually perceived situation. In problem 1, for example, one must guess that there is no need to direct the beam towards the tumor from only one source (it is practically impossible to solve the problem in this way). In task 2, it is necessary to move away from the usual attempts to look for its solution only in the plane (many subjects, without noticing it, impose a similar restriction on themselves, and thus the task turns out to be unsolvable for them); points (if the subject tries to place the entire polyline inside the square, then the problem is not solved). Finally, in Problem 4, it is necessary to guess that the common thing in the given geometric figures must be sought, not directly comparing these figures with each other, but in the belonging of all these figures to some third object, with which, in addition, certain actions must be performed (in this case are sections of the cone by a plane) to obtain the desired figures. In all four cases, after analyzing the conditions of the problem, a person must direct his thought in a non-standard way, that is, apply an unusual, creative way of thinking.
J. Guilford was one of the first to try to give a detailed answer to the question of what creative thinking is. He believed that the "creativity" of thinking is associated with the manifestation in it of the following four features:
1) originality, unusualness (non-triviality) of the ideas expressed, a pronounced desire of a person for intellectual novelty. A creative person almost always and everywhere strives to be different from everyone else, tries to find his own solution to the problem, different from those offered by other people;
2) semantic flexibility, i.e. the ability to see the problem from a new angle, discover new ways to use known objects and solutions, expand the scope of their functional application in practice. A creative person always finds unexpected, original ways of using quite ordinary objects;
3) figurative adaptive flexibility, i.e. the ability to change one’s perception of a problem (task) in such a way as to see new aspects hidden from direct observation in the already known or well-known;
4) semantic spontaneous flexibility, i.e. the ability to produce a variety of ideas in an indefinite situation, in particular one that does not contain obvious hints of the desired solution to the problem. In this case, we are talking about the ability of a person to look for and find a hint in solving a problem where it is not seen or noticed by most other people (people of an uncreative mindset).
In the course of experimental studies of creative thinking, the following conditions were identified that impede the search for a creative solution to the problem:
1) if in the past a certain way of solving a certain class of tasks by a person turned out to be successful, then this circumstance encourages him to continue to adhere to this particular method of solving. When faced with a new task, a person seeks to apply this method of solution in the first place;
2) the more effort a person has spent to find and put into practice a new way of solving a problem, the more likely it is to apply to it in the future. The psychological cost of discovering a new way of solving is proportional to the desire to use it in practice as often as possible;
3) the emergence of a stereotype of thinking, which, due to the above conditions, prevents a person from abandoning the former and starting to search for a new, more suitable way to solve the problem;
4) the intellectual abilities of a person, as a rule, suffer from frequent failures, and the fear of another failure automatically appears when faced with a new task. It generates in a person a kind of defensive reaction that interferes with his creative thinking (he perceives the new as associated with a risk to his own "I"). As a result, a person loses faith in himself, he accumulates negative emotions that prevent him from thinking creatively.
All of the above are difficulties regarding creative thinking as a process. What prevents a person from becoming a creative person and showing the originality of his thinking; Is it only his lack of developed creative abilities and the shortcomings mentioned above, or is it also something else that has no direct relation to creativity as such?
A serious obstacle to creative thinking can be not only insufficiently developed mental abilities, but also the following personal qualities of a person:
1) a tendency to conformism, expressed in the dominant desire to be like other people, not to differ from them in their judgments, actions and deeds;
2) fear of being a "black sheep", i.e., standing out among other people, seeming ridiculous and stupid in the eyes of other people;
3) fear of seeming strange, extravagant, even aggressive in their rejection of criticism from other people;
4) fear of personal rejection on the part of another person, whose intellectual abilities he surpasses;
5) an overestimation of the significance of their own ideas. Sometimes what a person himself invented or created, he likes much more than the thoughts, statements or deeds of other people, and so much so that he has a desire not to show his own to anyone and not to share with anyone;
6) highly developed anxiety. A person with this quality usually suffers from increased self-doubt, and is afraid to openly express his ideas.
Intellectual abilities of a person, as it turned out, suffer greatly from frequent failures. If for a long time a person is offered to solve only difficult tasks that he cannot cope with, and then given easier tasks, then a person may not be able to cope with them after long failures.
The concept of intelligence is inextricably linked with the concept of creativity. It is understood as the totality of the general mental abilities of a person, ensuring success in solving various problems.
To determine the level of intellectual development of a person, intelligence tests are usually used. Currently, a lot of various intelligence tests have been developed, which are intended for children and adults of different ages, from 2-3 to 60-65 years old.
Low scores on intelligence tests do not always indicate weak mental abilities and limited intellectual abilities of a person. This is one of the essential points that must be taken into account when evaluating test results and predicting future human success based on them. If, for example, at a certain age, especially in preschool or primary school, the child did not complete the test task properly, then one must be extremely careful in determining, on this basis, the prospects for his further intellectual development. In addition to a low level of intelligence, there can be many other reasons for low test scores, for example:
1) poorly formulated instructions for the test;
2) the unwillingness of the child to show good results (for some reason he does not want to force himself to think at a given time);
3) bad mood or bad attitude of the child towards the one who conducts the test (desire, for example, to annoy him);
4) not very clearly formulated tasks;
5) their inconsistency with the culture to which the child belongs, and a number of other factors.
It is known, for example, that most intelligence tests were created in the conditions of the European culture of thinking and include tasks that are specific to this particular culture. It is clear that people who are far from European culture will show lower results in such tests than Europeans. If, on the contrary, intelligence tests were developed by residents of African countries, the Far North or Polynesian countries, then, in turn, Europeans would have lower scores on them than residents of the corresponding countries.
2. Basic operations as aspects of mental activity.
The thought process begins with the appearance of any problem situation and is always aimed at resolving some problem, which indicates that the initial situation is given in the representation of the subject inadequately, in a random aspect, in insignificant connections. Therefore, in order to solve the problem as a result of the thought process, it is necessary to come to a more adequate knowledge.
To such an increasingly adequate cognition of its subject and the solution of the problem facing it, thinking proceeds through diverse operations that make up various interrelated and mutually transitioning aspects of the thought process.
Studying thinking, S.L. Rubinshtein singled out the main operations that make up his process. He attributed to them comparison, analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization. All these operations are different aspects of the main operation of thinking - "mediation", i.e., the disclosure of more and more essential objective connections and relationships.
2.1 Comparison, analysis and synthesis
The starting point of all thinking is comparison, because it is in the process of comparing things, phenomena, their properties that their identity or differences are revealed. Revealing the similarity of some and the differences of other things, comparison leads to their classification. Comparison is often the primary form of knowledge: things are first known by comparison. At the same time, it is also an elementary form of knowledge. Similarity and difference, being the main categories of rational knowledge, act at first as external relations. A more thorough knowledge requires the disclosure of internal connections, patterns and essential properties. This is carried out by other aspects of the thought process or types of mental operations, such as analysis and synthesis.
Analysis- this is a mental dismemberment of an object, phenomenon, situation and the identification of its constituent elements, parts, moments, sides. Analyzing something, we single out phenomena from those random unimportant connections in which they are often given to us in perception. Synthesis restores the whole dissected by analysis, revealing more or less significant connections and relationships of elements identified by analysis.
Analysis dismembers the problem; synthesis combines data in a new way to resolve it. Analyzing and synthesizing, the thought process goes from a more or less fuzzy idea of the subject to a concept in which the main elements are revealed by analysis and the essential connections of the whole are revealed by synthesis. Analysis and synthesis, like any other mental operations, arise initially on the plane of action. Theoretical mental analysis is preceded by a practical analysis of things in action, which dismembers them for practical purposes. In the same way, a theoretical synthesis is formed in a practical synthesis, in the productive activity of people. Formed first in practice, analysis and synthesis then become operations or aspects of the theoretical thought process.
In the content of scientific knowledge, in the logical content of thinking, analysis and synthesis are inextricably linked. From the point of view of logic, which considers the objective content of thought in relation to its truth, analysis and synthesis continuously pass into each other. Analysis without synthesis is flawed; attempts at a one-sided application of analysis outside of synthesis lead to a mechanistic reduction of the whole to the sum of the parts. In the same way, synthesis without analysis is also impossible, since synthesis must restore the whole in thought in the essential interconnections of its elements, which the analysis singles out.
If in the content of scientific knowledge, in order for it to be true, analysis and synthesis, as two sides of the whole, must strictly cover each other, then during mental activity they, remaining essentially inseparable and continuously passing into each other, can alternately come to the fore. . The superiority of analysis or synthesis at a particular stage of the thought process may be due primarily to the nature of the material. If the material, the initial data of the problem are unclear, their content is unclear, then at the first stages, analysis will inevitably prevail in the thought process for quite a long time. If, by the beginning of the thought process, all the data appear before the thought quite clearly, then the thought will immediately go mainly along the path of synthesis.
In the very nature of some people there may be a tendency either to the advantage of analysis or the advantage of synthesis. There are predominantly analytical minds, whose main strength is that they are precise and clear - in analysis, and others, predominantly synthetic, whose predominant strength is in the breadth of synthesis. However, even with all this, we are talking only about the relative predominance of one of these aspects of mental activity; for really great minds who create something really valuable in the field of scientific thought, usually analysis and synthesis still more or less balance each other.
Analysis and synthesis do not exhaust all aspects of thinking. Its important aspects are abstraction and generalization.
2.2 Abstraction and generalization
Abstraction- this is the selection, isolation and extraction of one side, property, moment of a phenomenon or object, essential in some respect, and abstraction from the rest.
Abstraction, like other mental operations, is born first on the plane of action. Abstraction in action, preceding mental abstraction, naturally arises in practice, since action is inevitably abstracted from a whole series of properties of objects, highlighting in them, first of all, those that are more or less directly related to human needs - the ability of things to serve as a means of nutrition, etc. in general, that which is essential for practical action. Primitive sensory abstraction is abstracted from some sensory properties of an object or phenomenon, highlighting other sensory properties or qualities of it. So, looking at some objects, I can highlight their shape, abstracting from their color, or, conversely, highlight their color, abstracting from their shape. Due to the infinite diversity of reality, no perception is able to cover all its aspects. Therefore, primitive sensory abstraction, expressed in the abstraction of some sensory aspects of reality from others, takes place in every process of perception and is inevitably associated with it. Such an isolating abstraction is closely connected with attention, and even involuntary attention, since in this case the content on which attention is focused is singled out. Primitive sensory abstraction arises as a result of the selective function of attention, which is closely connected with the organization of action.
From this primitive sensible abstraction it is necessary to distinguish - without separating them from each other - the highest form of abstraction, which is meant when talking about abstract concepts. Beginning with abstraction from some sensible properties and singling out other sensible properties, i.e., sensual abstraction, abstraction then passes into abstraction from the sensuous properties of an object and singling out its non-sensory properties expressed in abstract abstract concepts. Relations between things are conditioned by their objective properties, which are revealed in these relations. Therefore, thought can reveal their abstract properties through the mediation of relations between objects. Abstraction in its highest forms is the result, the side of mediation, the disclosure of more and more essential properties of things and phenomena through their connections and relationships.
This doctrine of abstraction, that is, of the process in which thinking passes over to abstract concepts, differs fundamentally from the doctrines of abstraction of empirical psychology, on the one hand, and idealistic, rationalistic psychology, on the other. The first, in essence, reduced the abstract to the sensible, the second separated the abstract from the sensible, arguing that the abstract content is either generated by thought or is seen by it as a self-sufficient abstract idea. In reality, the abstract is both irreducible to the sensuous and inseparable from it. Thought can arrive at the abstract only starting from the sensible. Abstraction is precisely this movement of thought which passes from the sensible properties of objects to their abstract properties through the mediation of relations into which these objects enter and in which their abstract properties are revealed.
Turning to the abstract, which is revealed through the relationship of concrete things, thought does not break away from the concrete, but inevitably returns to it again. At the same time, the return to the concrete, from which thought pushed off on its way to the abstract, is always associated with the enrichment of knowledge. Starting from the concrete and returning to it through the abstract, cognition mentally reconstructs the concrete in an ever greater completeness of its content as an fusion (the literal meaning of the word "concrete" from concresco- grow together) of diverse abstract definitions. Every process of cognition takes place in this double movement of thought.
Generalizations are another essential aspect of mental activity.
Generalization, or generalization, inevitably arises on the plane of action, since the individual responds to various stimuli with the same generalized action and produces them in different situations on the basis of the generality of only some of their properties. In different situations, the same action must often be carried out through different movements, while maintaining, however, the same scheme. Such a generalized scheme is actually a concept in action or a motor “concept”, and its application to one and non-application to another situation is, as it were, a judgment in action, or a motor, motor “judgment”. It goes without saying that here we do not mean the judgment itself as a conscious act or the concept itself as a conscious generalization, but only their active basis, root and prototype.
From the point of view of the traditional theory, based on formal logic, generalization is reduced to the rejection of specific, special, individual features and the preservation of only those that turn out to be common to a number of individual objects. The general, from this point of view, appears properly only as a recurring individual. Such a generalization, obviously, cannot lead beyond the limits of sensory singularity and, therefore, does not reveal the true essence of the process that leads to abstract concepts. The process of generalization itself is presented from this point of view not as the disclosure of new properties and definitions of objects cognized by thought, but as a simple selection and screening out of those that from the very beginning of the process were already given to the subject in the content of the sensually perceived properties of the object. The process of generalization thus turns out to be not a deepening and enrichment of our knowledge, but its impoverishment: each step of generalization, discarding the specific properties of objects, digressing from them, leads to the loss of part of our knowledge about objects; it leads to increasingly skinny abstractions. That very indefinite something, to which such a process of generalization by means of abstraction from specific particular and individual features would ultimately lead, would be - according to the apt expression of G.W.F. Hegel is equal to nothing in its complete lack of content. This is a purely negative understanding of generalization.
Such a negative view of the results of the generalization process is obtained in this concept because it does not reveal the most significant positive core of this process. This positive core lies in the disclosure of essential connections. The general is, first of all, essentially connected. “... Already the simplest generalization, the first and simplest formation of concepts (judgments, conclusions, etc.), - writes V. I. Lenin, - means a person’s knowledge of an ever deeper and deeper objective connection of the world.” From this first essential definition of generalization, it is easy to deduce, already as a secondary, derivative, the repeatability of the general, its generality for a whole series or class of individual objects. Essentially, i.e., necessary, interconnected precisely because of this, inevitably repeats itself. Therefore, the recurrence of a certain set of properties in a number of objects indicates - if not necessary, then presumably - the presence of more or less significant connections between them. Therefore, generalization can be carried out by means of comparison, highlighting the general in a number of objects or phenomena, and its abstraction. In fact, at the lower levels, in its more elementary forms, the process of generalization proceeds in this way. Thinking comes to the highest forms of generalization through mediation, through the disclosure of relationships, connections, patterns of development.
In the mental activity of the individual, which is the subject of psychological research, the process of generalization takes place mainly as an activity mediated by learning to master the concepts and general ideas created by previous historical development, fixed in the word, in the scientific term. Awareness of the meanings of these latter plays an essential role in mastering by the individual the increasingly generalized conceptual content of knowledge. This process of mastering the concept, understanding the meaning of the corresponding word or term takes place in constant interaction, in the circular interdependence of two operations that pass into each other: a) using the concept, operating the term, applying it to a particular particular case, i.e. introducing it into one other specific, visually presented, subject context; b) its definition, disclosure of its generalized meaning through awareness of the relations that define it in a generalized conceptual context.
Concepts are mastered in the process of using them and operating with them. When a concept is not applied to a specific case, it loses its conceptual content for the individual.
Abstraction and generalization, rooted in practice in their original forms and carried out in practical actions related to needs, in their higher forms are two interconnected sides of a single thought process of revealing connections, relationships through which thought goes to an ever deeper knowledge of objective reality in its essential properties and regularities. This knowledge is accomplished in concepts, judgments and inferences.
3. Development of thinking
A person's thinking can develop, and his intellectual abilities can improve. Many psychologists came to this conclusion long ago as a result of observing changes in the level of intellectual development of a person during his life and the successful application in practice of various methods for the development of thinking.
However, until the end of the XIX century. many scientists were convinced that the intellectual abilities of people are given to them from birth and do not develop during life. This point of view was held, for example, by F. Galton. In the 20th century, the situation changed, and the vast majority of scientists came to the conclusion that human intelligence, even if there are its genetic foundations, can still develop during a person's life. Numerous facts support this conclusion.
In the XX century. many psychologists have studied the intellect and the process of its development. J. Piaget was one of the first to propose a theory of the development of the child's intellect, which had a significant impact on the modern understanding of thinking and its development in humans.
After conducting appropriate experiments with children of different ages to solve problems that require mastery of operations, Piaget came to the conclusion that the thinking of children in the process of its development passes through the following four stages of development.
1. Stage of sensorimotor intelligence. It is characterized by the presence in the child of only an elementary form of thinking - visual-effective.
2. Stage of pre-operational thinking. It is characterized by the ability of children to act, solving problems, not only with real material objects, but also with their images. However, actions with objects or images at this stage are also not yet combined into operations, and the child is not able to perform them in the direct and reverse order. At this stage of intellectual development, according to data obtained by Piaget, there are children aged 2 to 7 years.
3. Stage of specific operations. At this stage, children already master operations with specific material objects and their images, and they can perform operations with the corresponding objects both practically and mentally, and the operations themselves become reversible. Children of this age (from 7-8 to 11-12 years old) no longer make logical errors such as Piagetian phenomena, but are not yet able to perform mental operations with abstract concepts.
4. Stage of formal operations. This stage is distinguished by the ability of children to perform full-fledged, reversible mental actions and operations with concepts and other abstract objects. Children of the appropriate age (from 11-12 to 14-15 years old, according to Piaget) master logic, are able to reason in the mind, and their mental operations are not only reversible, but are already organized into a structural whole. At this stage, verbal-logical thinking, respectively, receives full development.
In our country, the theories of the development of thinking developed by L. S. Vygotsky, P. Ya. Galperin and V. V. Davydov are widely known. Let's get acquainted with how these theories represent the process of development of thinking.
L. S. Vygotsky, unlike Piaget, was interested in the development of concepts in children. In this he saw one of the main directions in the improvement of children's thinking in ontogeny. He presents the process of development of concepts as a gradual assimilation by the child of the intellectual content that is inherent in the concepts used by adults in verbal-logical thinking. This process consists in enriching and refining their volume and content, as well as in expanding and deepening the scope of their practical application in thinking. The formation of concepts is the result of long, complex and active mental work. This process has its roots in deep childhood.
Another Russian scientist P. Ya. Galperin developed a theory of the development of thinking in the process of its purposeful formation, which was called the theory of the phased (planned) formation of mental actions. He singled out the stages of transformation of external practical actions with real material objects into internal, mental actions with concepts. In addition, he determined and described the conditions for the formation of full-fledged mental actions with predetermined parameters, which ensure the most complete and effective translation of external practical actions into internal mental actions. The process of transferring an external action inward, according to P.Ya. Galperin, is carried out in stages, passing through certain stages. At each stage, there is a gradual transformation of the action according to the specified parameters.
This theory states that a full-fledged mental action, i.e., an action of a higher intellectual order, cannot take shape without relying on the previous stages of its implementation. The four parameters by which the action is transformed when it passes from outside to inside are as follows:
1) performance level;
2) measure of generalization;
3) completeness of actually performed operations;
4) the degree of development.
According to the first of these parameters, the action can be on three sublevels: action with material objects, action in terms of loud speech and action in the mind. The other three parameters characterize the qualities of the formed action: generalization, abbreviation and mastery.
The theory of the development of thinking according to V. V. Davydov was developed on the basis of studying the process of development of thinking in children of primary school age, but has a more general meaning as a theory that indicates the fundamental points associated with the formation of a full-fledged theoretical thinking in a person. The main provisions of this theory are expressed in the following.
1. A person's thinking cannot reach a high level of development if he has not learned how to solve theoretical problems: to define concepts, to reason in the mind using the laws of logic, to propose and substantiate theories.
2. Full-fledged theoretical thinking in a person cannot be formed by going only empirically, that is, by offering to solve only practical problems.
3. Such thinking in children must be formed at primary school age, from the first years of schooling.
4. The formation of theoretical thinking is possible only under conditions of specially organized developmental education.
1) a system for processing perceived information and transferring attention from one of its types to another;
2) a system responsible for setting goals and managing purposeful activities;
3) a system responsible for changing existing systems of the first and second types, for creating new similar systems.
1) at a time when the body is practically not busy processing information coming from outside (when, for example, a person is sleeping), the third type system processes the information received earlier;
2) the purpose of the relevant processing is to determine the consequences of previous mental activity, such that they are stable and valuable ideas. So, for example, there are systems that govern the recording of previous events, separating these records into those that are potentially valuable, consistent with each other, and those that are contradictory and of no value. Next, the consistency of the elements of the selected systems is established;
3) as soon as such consistency is found (marked), another system comes into play - the one that generates a new system;
4) as a result, a new system of a higher level is formed, which includes the previous systems included in its composition as elements or parts.
These ideas implement the latest system-structural approach to the study of the development of human thinking or intellect, in which a direct analogy of human thinking and computer "thinking" is seen. In mathematical programming, when programs of work for a computer are created and improved, they are also divided into subprograms, which, as the "intelligence" of the machine improves, become part of a new, more complex program of its work. True, the machine itself does not own the rate of information processing subsystems, which Klar and Wallace single out in their theory. This is available only to a person who teaches the machine to “think” like a human.
Conclusion
From the point of view of psychology, the study of thinking as a process is the study of such internal, hidden causes that lead to the formation of certain cognitive results. Such results and products of thinking can be such facts as: the given student was able or unable to solve the problem; whether or not he has an idea, a solution plan or a guess how to solve a given problem; whether he acquired the necessary knowledge and methods of action; whether he has formed new concepts, etc. Behind all these outwardly appearing facts, psychology seeks to reveal the inner thought process that leads to these facts. Thus, psychological science investigates internal, specific causes that can explain, and not only state and describe externally acting mental phenomena and events.
When studying thinking, like any other mental process, psychology takes into account and specifically investigates, to one degree or another, exactly what motives and needs led a given person to become involved in the activity of cognition and what circumstances led him to the need for analysis, synthesis, etc.
Thinks, thinks not in itself "pure" thinking, not in itself a thought process as such, but the individuality and personality of a person who has precisely his own specific abilities, feelings and needs. The inextricable connection between thought processes and needs is clearly revealed by the important fact that any thinking is, first of all, the thinking of a certain person with all the facets of its relationship with nature, society, and other people.
List of used literature
1. Asmolov A.G. Psychology of Personality. - M., Moscow State University, 1990.
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4. Vygotsky L.S. Thinking and speech. - M., 1982.
5. Gippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology. – M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1988.
6. Gleitman G., Fridlund A., Raisberg D. Fundamentals of psychology. S.-Pb., 2001.
7. Grinshpun I.B. Introduction to psychology. - M., 2000.
8. Signs V.V. Understanding in knowledge and communication. Samara, 2000.
9. Kornilova T.V. Psychology of risk and decision making. M., 2003.
10. Leontiev A.N. Lectures on General Psychology. M., 2000.
11. Leontiev A.N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. - M., 1975.
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14. General psychology: a course of lectures / comp. E. I. Rogov. M., 2003.
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16. Petukhov V.V. Psychology of thinking. - M., 2001.
17. Rogov E.I. General psychology: a course of lectures. - M.: VLADOS, 1995
4.5. Thinking
The concept of thinking. Cognition of the surrounding world goes "from living contemplation to abstract thinking and from it to practice - such is the dialectical path of knowing the truth, knowing objective reality" (V.I. Lenin).
Sensations, perception, memory - this is the first stage of cognition inherent in most animals, giving only an external picture of the world, a direct, "living contemplation" of reality. But sometimes sensory knowledge is not enough to get a complete picture of a phenomenon or fact. It is here that thinking comes to the rescue, which helps the knowledge of the laws of nature and society. A feature of thinking is the reflection of objects and phenomena of reality in their essential features, regular connections and relationships that exist between parts, sides, features of each object and between different objects and phenomena of reality.
Thinking is a process by which a person mentally penetrates beyond what is given to him in sensations and perception. In other words, with the help of thinking, one can gain knowledge that is inaccessible to the senses. The stage of abstract thinking (see below) is unique to man.
Thinking is a higher stage of cognition, it is a stage of rational, mediated cognition of reality, a condition for rational practical activity. The truth of such knowledge is tested by practice. Thinking is always a process of solving a problem, finding answers to a question or getting out of a situation.
Not all tasks require thinking. For example, if the method of solving a task set before a person has long been and well learned by him, and the conditions of activity are familiar, then in order to cope with it, memory and perception are quite enough. Thinking is "turned on" when a fundamentally new task is set or, if necessary, to use previously accumulated knowledge, skills and abilities in new conditions.
Thinking - it is an indirect, generalized reflection of reality in its most essential connections and relations, occurring in unity with speech.
Features of thinking are as follows.
1. Solving problems indirectly, that is, in a way that uses a variety of auxiliary techniques and means designed to obtain the necessary knowledge. A person resorts to the help of thinking when direct knowledge is either impossible (people do not perceive ultrasound, infrared radiation, X-rays, the chemical composition of stars, the distance from the Earth to other planets, physiological processes in the cerebral cortex, etc.), or in in principle, it is possible, but not in modern conditions (archaeology, paleontology, geology, etc.), or it is possible, but irrational. Solving a problem indirectly means solving it, including with the help of mental operations. For example, when, waking up in the morning, a person goes to the window and sees that the roofs of the houses are wet, and there are puddles on the ground, he makes a conclusion: it rained at night. Man did not perceive rain directly, but learned about it indirectly, through other facts. Other examples: the doctor learns about the presence of an inflammatory process in the patient's body using additional means - a thermometer, test results, x-rays, etc.; the teacher can assess the degree of diligence of the student by his answer at the blackboard; You can find out what the air temperature is outside in different ways: directly, by sticking your hand out the window, and indirectly, using a thermometer. Indirect knowledge of objects and phenomena is carried out with the help of the perception of other objects or phenomena that are naturally associated with the first. These connections and relationships are usually hidden, they cannot be perceived directly, and mental operations are resorted to to reveal them.
2. Generalized reflection of reality. Only concrete objects can be perceived directly: this tree, this table, this book, this person. You can think about the subject in general (“Love the book - the source of knowledge”; “Man descended from the monkey”). It is thought that allows us to capture the similarity in the different and the different in the similar, to discover regular connections between phenomena and events.
A person can foresee what will happen in a particular case because it reflects the general properties of objects and phenomena. But it is not enough to notice the connection between two facts; it is also necessary to realize that it has a general character and is determined by the general properties of things, i.e., properties related to a whole group of similar objects and phenomena. Such a generalized reflection makes it possible to predict the future, to present it in the form of images that do not really exist.
3. Reflection of the most essential properties and connections of reality. In phenomena or objects, we single out the general, not taking into account the inessential, the non-principal. So, any clock is a mechanism for determining the time, and this is their main feature. Neither the shape, nor the size, nor the color, nor the material from which they are made, do not matter.
The thinking of higher animals is based on the causal reflex (from Latin causa - reason) - a type of brain reflexes, which, according to I.P. Pavlov, is not identical to a conditioned reflex. The causal reflex is the physiological basis for the direct (without the participation of concepts) mental reflection of essential connections between objects and phenomena (in humans, the causal reflex, combined with experience, underlies intuition and thinking).
4. The main feature of human thinking is that it inextricably linked with speech. the word denotes that which objects and phenomena have in common. Language, speech is the material shell of thought. Only in speech form does a person's thought become available to other people. A person has no other means of reflecting the corresponding connections of the external world, except for those speech forms that are entrenched in his native language. Thought can neither arise, nor flow, nor exist outside of language, outside of speech.
Speech is an instrument of thought. Man thinks with the help of words. But it does not follow from this that the process of thinking is reduced to speech, that to think means to speak aloud or to oneself. The difference between the thought itself and its verbal expression lies in the fact that the same thought can be expressed in different languages or using different words ("The next summer is expected to be hot" - "The coming season between spring and autumn will be hot"). The same thought has a different speech form, but without any speech form it does not exist.
“I know, but I can’t put it into words” is a state when a person cannot move from expressing thoughts in inner speech to outer speech, finds it difficult to express it in a way understandable to other people.
The result of thinking is thoughts, judgments and concepts expressed in words.
The physiological basis of thinking is the activity of the entire cerebral cortex, and not just one part of it. Temporary nerve connections in the second signal system in interaction with the first, which are formed between the brain ends of the analyzers, act as a specific neurophysiological mechanism of thinking.
mental operations. New thoughts and images arise on the basis of what was already in our minds thanks to mental operations: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, abstraction. Analysis - this is a mental division of the whole into parts, the selection of individual features or sides and the establishment of connections and relationships between them. With the help of analysis, we isolate phenomena from those random, insignificant connections in which they are given to us in perception (analysis of a sentence by members, phonetic analysis of a word, analysis of a task condition into known, unknown and sought-for elements, analysis of educational activities in subjects and student success and etc.). Analysis as a mental operation arose from practical actions (for example, a child takes apart a new toy in order to understand how it works).
Synthesis - a process that is inverse to analysis, which is a mental union of parts, properties of an object into a single whole, into complexes, systems (mosaic; syllables - words - sentences - text).
These mental processes, opposite in content, are inseparably united. In the course of the thought process, analysis and synthesis continuously pass into each other and can alternately come to the fore, which is due to the nature of the material: if the initial problems are not clear, their content is not clear, then at first analysis will prevail; if, on the other hand, all the data are sufficiently distinct, thought will at once go predominantly along the path of synthesis. Ultimately, all processes of imagination and thinking consist in the mental decomposition of phenomena into their constituent parts and the subsequent unification of these parts in new combinations.
Analysis and synthesis as the main mental operations are inherent in any person, but the tendency to crush or combine the phenomena of the surrounding reality can be different for different people: some notice the smallest details, details, particulars, but do not grasp the whole - these are representatives of the analytical type; others immediately go to the main point, but express the essence of events in a too generalized way, which is typical of representatives of the synthetic type. Most people have a mixed, analytical-synthetic type of thinking.
Comparison is a mental operation through which the similarity and difference of individual objects are established. K.D. Ushinsky considered comparison to be the basis of all understanding and all thinking: “We learn everything in the world only through comparison, and if we were presented with some new object that we could not equate to anything and distinguish from anything .. ... then we could not form a single thought about this subject and could not say a single word about it.
One of the most common mistakes that students make when comparing is the juxtaposition of objects (“Onegin is such and such ..., and Pechorin is such and such”), while they are absolutely sure that they are giving a comparative description of the characters. Comparison needs to be taught: comparison should be based on one basis (color, shape, purpose). It is also necessary to learn how to draw up a plan for comparing objects (what are the similarities and differences, for example, such objects as a nail and a screw, a cat and a squirrel, a white mushroom and a fly agaric, such intellectual qualities as curiosity and inquisitiveness).
Abstraction (distraction) - this is a mental operation that ensures the selection of essential features and distraction from non-essential ones, the selection of the properties of an object and considering them separately: a person, and a landscape, and a dress, and an act can be beautiful, but all of them are carriers of an abstract feature - beauty, prettiness.
Without abstraction, it is impossible to understand the figurative meaning of proverbs (“Don’t get into your sleigh”; “Count chickens in the fall”; “If you like to ride, love to carry sleds”).
Generalization- this is a mental operation that ensures the selection of the general in objects and phenomena and the unification of objects into sets, classes; rejection of single signs while maintaining the common ones with the disclosure of significant links. Generalization is any rule, any law, any concept. It is always some kind of result, a general conclusion made by a person.
It is obvious that all the basic operations of thinking do not act in a "pure form". When solving a task, a person uses one or another “set” of operations, in various combinations: it is different in the thought process of varying complexity and structure.
Forms of thinking. There are three substantive components of thinking - concept, judgment and conclusion.
concept– it is a form of thinking, through which the general and essential features of objects and phenomena are reflected.
Concepts are of a generalized nature, because they are the product of the cognitive activity of not one person, but many people. We recall once again that a representation is an image of a particular object, and a concept is an abstract thought about a class of objects. The word is the bearer of the concept, but, knowing the word (for example, a prestidigitator), one may not own the concept.
There are so-called worldly concepts that are formed without special training and reflect not essential, but secondary features of objects. So, for preschoolers, a rat is a predator, and a cat is a cute pet.
Any concept has content and scope.
By content(a set of features of an object) concepts are concrete and abstract. Specific concepts refer to the objects themselves, define objects or classes as a whole (table, revolution, hurricane, snow, etc.), and abstract reflect properties abstracted from real objects and phenomena (youth, honesty, whiteness, speed, height, strength, etc.).
By volume(set of objects covered by a given concept) concepts can be single and general. Single concepts reflect a single object (the Russian Federation, the Volga, the Battle of Kulikovo, Pushkin, Mars, space, etc.), and general apply to groups of homogeneous objects (countries, cities, rivers, universities, students, houses, organisms, etc.). In addition, distinguish still generic and specific concepts.
The definition (definition) of concepts is the disclosure of its essential features. For example, a person is a social individual with consciousness, abstract thinking, speech, capable of creative activity, creating tools of labor; personality is a conscious person involved in social relations and creative activity.
The process of assimilation of concepts is an active creative mental activity.
Judgment - this is a form of thinking that contains the assertion or denial of any provisions regarding objects, phenomena or their properties, that is, a judgment is a reflection of relations or objective connections between phenomena or objects.
A judgment is always either true or false. In terms of quality, judgments can be affirmative and negative, in terms of volume - general, particular and singular.
General judgments refer to a whole class of objects (all metals conduct electricity; all plants have roots). Private judgments refer to a part of some class of objects (some trees are green in winter; it is not always possible for a hockey player to score a goal). Single refer to one object or phenomenon (Yuri Gagarin - the first cosmonaut).
Judgments always reveal the content of concepts. The work of thought on judgment is called reasoning. It can be inductive and deductive.
inductive reasoning is called inference - this is a form of thinking, with the help of which a new judgment (conclusion) is derived from one or several known judgments (premisses), which completes the thought process. At the same time, thought moves from the particular to the general. A typical example of inference is the proof of a geometric theorem.
Deductive reasoning is called justification - here the conclusion is obtained, going from a general judgment to a particular one (all planets are spherical. The Earth is a planet, which means it has the shape of a ball).
Types of thinking. AT In his practical activity, a person encounters tasks that are different both in content and in the way they are solved.
depending on the degree of generalization thinking in solving mental problems distinguish between visual and abstract thinking.
visual (specific) such thinking is called, the object of which a person perceives or represents. It is directly based on the images of objects and is divided into visual-effective and visual-figurative.
Visual and effective thinking is genetically the earliest type of thinking, in which the mental task is solved directly in the process of activity and practical actions with material objects predominate.
At visual-figurative in the form of thinking, the solution of the problem occurs as a result of internal actions with images (representations of memory and imagination). For example, the analysis of a historical event can be done in different ways (a scientific description of the Siege of Leningrad, A. Chakovsky's novel "Blockade", Tanya Savicheva's diary, Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony).
Discursive (abstract-conceptual, verbal-logical) thinking is the verbal thinking of a person, mediated by past experience. This type of thinking is characterized by the fact that it acts as a process of coherent logical reasoning, in which each subsequent thought is conditioned by the previous one, and that, when solving a mental problem in a verbal form, a person operates with abstract concepts, logical constructions. It represents the latest stage in the historical and genetic development of thinking.
Another basis for distinguishing types of thinking is its orientation. According to this criterion, practical and theoretical thinking is distinguished.
Practical (technical, constructive) thinking is a process of thinking that takes place in the course of practical activity and is aimed at creating real objects and phenomena by changing the surrounding reality with the help of tools. It is associated with setting goals, developing plans, projects, often deployed in conditions of time pressure, which sometimes makes it more difficult than theoretical thinking.
The discovery of laws, the properties of objects, the explanation of phenomena is directed theoretical (explanatory) thinking, the main components of which are meaningful abstractions, generalizations, analysis, planning and reflection. In other words, theoretical thinking is in demand where it is necessary to reveal connections and relationships between individual concepts, connect the unknown with the known, and determine the possibility of foresight.
Thinking as a process of solving a new problem can be included in any activity: gaming, sports, labor, artistic, social. But in all these activities, it will play a service role, obeying the main goal of the activity: to build a house, win competitions, etc. It differs from these activities and thinking as a process. thinking activity, in which thinking plays the main role, where the purpose and content of the activity is cognition. Therefore, for example, two students of the same class, working on the same tasks, can carry out different types of activities: mental - the one who solves the problem in order to understand its essence and learn something new, practical - the one who solves to mark , for prestige.
Problem situation and mental task. If almost all cognitive mental processes can be both involuntary and voluntary, then thinking is always and necessarily voluntary: it occurs when faced with a problematic situation, when it is necessary to find a way out of the situation.
Problem situation- this is a task that requires an answer to a specific question, a situation that contains something incomprehensible, unknown to the subject along with the known. Thinking serves precisely to, based on the obvious, to find hidden connections, links and patterns (puzzles, chess studies, breakdown of mechanisms, life conflicts, etc.).
Many problem situations do not specifically affect the subject, they “start” thinking only when they become personally significant for him, because an incomprehensible fact (problem situation) and a mental task (a product of processing a problem situation) are far from the same thing.
mental task arises if a person has a desire or awareness of the need to understand the problem situation; in other words, a question arose - thinking began to work.
The stages of solving a mental problem are as follows:
1) awareness of the problem situation, the exact wording of the question;
2) analysis and synthesis of data related to the task;
3) promotion and analysis of hypotheses, search for possible solutions;
4) verification (mental or practical), comparison of the result with the original data.
Qualities of mind and intellect. In the process of thinking, not only the depth of a person's knowledge of reality is manifested, but also many personality traits clearly appear. Mental abilities are understood as the totality of those qualities that distinguish the thinking of a given person. Qualities of the mind These are the properties of a person's personality that consistently characterize his mental activity. These include: independence, curiosity, speed, breadth, simultaneity, depth, flexibility, mental mobility, logic, criticality, and many others.
Independence - this is the originality of thinking, the ability to find new options for solving problems, to defend the position taken without resorting to the help of other people, not succumbing to inspiring outside influences, the ability to make decisions and act unconventionally.
Curiosity- a property of a person as a need for knowledge of not only certain phenomena, but also their systems.
Rapidity- the ability of a person to quickly understand a new situation, to think over and make the right decision (not to be confused with haste, when a person, without having thought through the issue comprehensively, grabs one side of it, hurries to “give out” a decision, expresses insufficiently thought-out answers and judgments).
Latitude- the ability to use knowledge from another area to solve a problem, the ability to cover the whole issue as a whole, without losing sight of the particulars that are essential for the case (excessive breadth borders on amateurism).
Simultaneity - versatility of approach to problem solving.
Depth - the degree of penetration into the essence of phenomena, the desire to understand the causes of events, to foresee their further development.
Flexibility, mobility- full consideration of the specific conditions for solving this particular problem. A flexible, mobile mind implies freedom of thought from preconceived assumptions, stencils, the ability to find a new solution under changing conditions.
Logic- the ability to establish a consistent and accurate order in solving various issues.
criticality is characterized by the ability not to consider the first thought that came to mind to be true, to correctly assess the objective conditions and one's own activity, carefully weigh all the pros and cons, and subject hypotheses to a comprehensive test. Criticality is based on deep knowledge and experience.
If thinking is the process of solving problems in order to gain new knowledge and create something, then intelligence is a characteristic of the general mental abilities necessary to solve such problems. There are different interpretations of the concept of intelligence.
The structural-genetic approach is based on the ideas of the Swiss psychologist J. Piaget (1896-1980), who considered the intellect as the highest universal way of balancing the subject with the environment. From the point of view of the structural approach, intelligence is a combination of certain abilities.
The approach formulated by the French psychologist A. Binet (1857–1911) is also consonant with him: "intelligence as the ability to adapt means to ends."
The American psychologist D. Wexler (1896–1981) believes that intelligence is “the global ability to act reasonably, think rationally and cope well with life circumstances”, i.e., he considers intelligence as a person’s ability to adapt to the environment.
There are various concepts of the structure of intelligence. So, at the beginning of the twentieth century. English psychologist C. Spearman (1863-1945) singled out the general factor of intelligence (factor G) and the factor S, which serves as an indicator of specific abilities. From his point of view, each person is characterized by a certain level of general intelligence, which determines how this person adapts to the environment. In addition, all people have developed specific abilities to varying degrees, manifested in solving specific problems.
The American psychologist L. Thurstone (1887–1955) used statistical methods to study various aspects of general intelligence, which he called primary mental potencies. He singled out seven such potencies: 1) counting ability, that is, the ability to operate with numbers and perform arithmetic; 2) verbal (verbal) flexibility, i.e. the ease with which a person can explain himself using the most appropriate words; 3) verbal perception, i.e. the ability to understand oral and written speech; 4) spatial orientation, or the ability to imagine various objects and forms in space; 5) memory; b) the ability to reason; 7) the speed of perception of similarities or differences between objects and images.
Later, the American psychologist D. Gilford (1897–1976) singled out 120 factors of intelligence based on what mental operations they are needed for, what results these operations lead to and what their content is (the content can be figurative, symbolic, semantic, behavioral).
The ability of the brain to mental activity is one of the main differences between the higher nervous system and the nervous systems of other living beings. Most often, psychologists and neurophysiologists define thinking as a continuous process of modeling and reflecting in the mind of an individual all systemic connections and interconnections of the surrounding world on the basis of certain unconditional provisions. However, there are other definitions of the term "thinking", since almost every scientist conducting his research in the field of cognitive psychology, gave his own definition of thinking.
The main characteristics of thinking in psychology
Thinking in psychology is one of the highest functions of the human psyche, since it can be described as a mental activity that has a motive, purpose, criteria, a system of methods and actions, a result, and control. The purpose of thinking in psychology is always to find a solution to some question or task, because it is the emergence of a problem that needs to be solved that is the reason for the start of mental activity. It doesn’t matter what question you need to find an answer to: solve a simple mathematical problem, figure out where to go to relax or or colleagues to finish work quickly, or develop a fundamentally new technical tool - in all these cases, the same forms, stages and operations of thinking are used.
Psychologists distinguish three main forms of thinking: concept, judgment and inference. The concept is the definition and systematization of all essential properties and characteristics of objects to which the thought process is directed, as well as the allocation of general and specific factors and properties for each of the objects of thinking. The concept makes it possible to form a complete picture of the objects of thought, their basic properties and relationships. The second, no less important form of thinking, without which a full understanding is impossible, is a judgment - an affirmation, or vice versa, a denial of any property of an object of thinking or a relationship. Based on the concept and judgment, a conclusion is made - a conclusion, which is the result of the thought process.
Without mental operations, understanding and judgment are impossible; specialists in the field of psychology and neurophysiology distinguish the following operations of thinking in psychology:
Comparison - determination of similarities and differences between objects of thought;
Analysis - division of the object of thinking into components and determination of the properties of each individual part of the object;
Synthesis - structuring and connecting into one system of various objects of thinking that have interconnections;
Abstraction - deliberate ignoring of the non-essential properties of an object in order to highlight the most significant characteristics;
Concretization - the allocation of particular characteristics for each of the total mass of objects of thought;
Induction - determination of conclusions about general provisions based on known data about particular provisions;
Deduction - inferences based on the application of general provisions in particular situations;
Classification - the definition of the relationship between the objects of thought and their position relative to each other;
Generalization - highlighting the most essential properties and relationships common to all objects of thought.
Types of thinking in psychology
A huge number of logical and mental tasks that the human brain solves every day led to the selection of several types of thinking in psychology, which differ from each other in content, in the nature of the tasks and in originality. The following classification of types of thinking is most often used in psychology:
1. Visual-figurative thinking - its essence lies in the transformation of images of perception into images-representations. Such thinking is characteristic of creative people, as well as in a simple form - preschool children, who mainly think in images. A vivid example of the result of figurative thinking is a picture drawn by the artist depicting his vision and understanding of the world, a fragrance created by a perfumer, etc.
2. Visual-effective thinking - a type of thinking in psychology, which is based on the observation of the object of thinking and the determination of all relationships in the process of direct participation in the situation, conducting an experiment. This type of thinking is used by children: in order to determine the properties of an object, they need to examine it, touch it, etc.
3. Abstract (discursive) thinking - based on judgments, conclusions and concepts; with it, a person does not rely on data obtained by him empirically. In order to understand mathematical theorems, to study the practical application of the laws of physics and chemistry, it is abstract thinking that is used.
By the nature of the tasks
1. Theoretical - thinking in psychology, the purpose of which is to know the rules, laws and theories, as well as the connections between and properties of abstract objects of thinking. All mathematical formulas, philosophical laws, as well as the summary table of Mendeleev's elements are all visual results of theoretical thinking.
2. Practical thinking - mental processes aimed at the physical transformation of objects from the surrounding reality. The invention and constant improvement of technical means, new discoveries made almost every day in laboratories and research institutes are the obvious results of practical thinking.
By originality
1. Reproductive thinking - with it, a person uses methods and methods previously invented by other people to solve his problem
2. Productive (creative) thinking - consists in determining one's own solutions for the tasks set, and during the thinking process a person relies only on his own experience and his own judgments, and not on the conclusions and solution schemes invented by others.
