Imagination is a property of the psyche to create images in the mind. All processes that take place in images are called imaginations. Imagination as a mental process constitutes visual-figurative thinking, thanks to which a person can navigate, look for a solution to problems without the direct intervention of practical actions. This process is very essential, especially in cases where it is impossible or difficult to carry out the necessary practical action, or it is simply inappropriate.

This process reflects the surrounding world of a person at the highest mental levels. The most popular definition of imagination is a mental process, the essence of which is the creation of new unique images, through the processing of the perceived material of representations that came with previous experience. It is also considered as a phenomenon, as an ability and as a specific activity of the subject. This process has a complex functional structure, so Vygotsky defined it as a psychological system.

The function of imagination is peculiar only to a person and has a certain meaning in a specific professional activity of a person. Before starting to perform a certain activity, he imagines what kind of this object will be and mentally creates an algorithm of actions. Thus, a person constructs in advance the image of a future object or the final result of an activity. Developed creative imagination plays a great role in creative professions. Thanks to their developed creative abilities, people earn big money.

There are several types of imagination: active (voluntary), passive (involuntary), recreative, creative.

Imagination in psychology

Imagination is a process of cognition of the surrounding world. The outside world seems to be imprinted in the subconscious of a person. Thanks to this, a person is able to remember old and recent events, to program, to imagine the future. Often this process is called the ability to imagine missing objects in one's thoughts, to keep their image, to manipulate it in consciousness. Sometimes it is confused with, but really these are two different mental processes.

The imagination tends to create images based on memory rather than information from the outside world. It is less real because it has a component of fantasy and dreams. Even the most pragmatic, skeptical, boring people have imagination. It is impossible to attach a person who has completely lost such a function. The behavior of these people is governed by their principles, logic, facts, they always do everything according to the rules. But to say that they completely lack creative thinking or that they never dream is very wrong. It's just that this is the type of people in whom these processes are not sufficiently developed or they do not use them, or do not know how to use them. Often such people have a monotonous typical life that repeats the same every day and they act according to a certain algorithm, believing that they have no time for more. In fact, it is a pity for such people, because their life is boring, they do not use the abilities that are given to them by nature. Creative imagination makes people individual, non-repeating personalities.

Imagination as a mental process has certain functions that help a person become special.

cognitive function is contained in expanding the horizons of a person, gaining knowledge, constructing a person’s behavior in an uncertain situation, guided by conjectures and considerations.

Prediction Function suggests that the properties of the imagination help a person to imagine the end result of an unfinished action. It is this function that contributes to the formation of dreams and dreams in people.

Understanding function is displayed in a person’s ability to assume what a person is now experiencing, what emotions he is overwhelmed with, what feelings he is experiencing. Similar to this function is the state of empathy, when a person is able to penetrate the world of another and understand what worries him.

The protection function assumes that by predicting future events, thinking about the course of actions and the consequences of these actions, a person can prevent troubles, protect himself from possible problems.

Self-development function is displayed in a person's ability to fantasize, invent and create.

Memory function It is expressed in the ability of a person to remember past events, to recreate frames of the past in his head. It is stored in the form of images and representations.

The above functions are not always fully expressed in all people. Each personality is dominated by a certain function, which often determines the character and behavior of a person. To understand how images and representations are created, it is necessary to follow the main ways of their creation. Each path is a complex multi-level mental process.

Agglutination is the creation of unreal, completely new, fabulous objects or phenomena that appear under the influence of the properties and appearance of some existing object, evaluating and analyzing the properties of which a person creates an object similar to him. That is, there is an original object on the basis of which a prototype is formed. This technique is very popular in creating fairy tales or myths.

Emphasizing is the process of fixing on one dominant characteristic highlighted in some object (person, object, activity, phenomenon) and its hyperbolization. Emphasis is often used in their work by artists in the creation of cartoons and caricatures.

Typification is the process of highlighting the main characteristics in several objects, and creating an image from them, completely new, but containing a piece of each of them. With the help of this technique, literary heroes and characters are created.

All of the above methods of imagination are actively used in psychology, creativity, and even scientific activity. For example, in medicine, new drugs are created based on existing ones. Also, modern technology, electronics, gadgets, inventions were developed on the basis of previously existing knowledge, schemes, theories and skills. Having collected from them the most important information, having processed it, scientists receive a completely new product. If people had no imagination, humanity would not be able to progress in all spheres and activities.

Imagination as a mental process involves the creation of new images based on existing experience. Ideas that appear in images in a person's head have not yet begun to be realized, do not exist, but it is possible that in the future they can be brought to life. This process is based on the reformulation of information and impressions of the subject. The more the situation seems incomprehensible and complex, the more the imagination process is involved. This process is of great importance in the professional activity of a person. It also greatly influences feelings and emotions, and plays a large role in the development of personality.

In the creative and working process, imagination enables the individual to regulate and manage her activities, as well as control her speech, emotions, attention and memory. Helps to create and use images of reality. It improves the psychological state of a person, prevents stress and depression. With the help of imagination, he is able to plan his future activities in his mind, manipulating images. Imagination and individuality are the criteria in assessing the talent and abilities of a person, which is important in labor activity.

A person reflects the surrounding reality mainly in a figurative way. The image is a non-static phenomenon, it tends to change constantly. This process has a dynamic connection with the objects of the surrounding reality. Consequently, imagination is not some kind of abstraction, but a specific process associated with the real mental activity of the subject. This activity is also dynamic in nature.

Imagination is a process of self-knowledge of a person, disclosure of his abilities, other people and the world around him, the events taking place. This is a special form of the human psyche, occupying a place between perception, memory and thought processes. Visual-figurative thinking and imagination complement each other, imagination is its basis and makes it possible to show resourcefulness in an unfamiliar situation, to find a solution to a problem without applying any actions.

Types of imagination

This process, as a complex mental process, can also be of several types. Regarding the features of the process, they distinguish: involuntary, arbitrary, recreating, creative, and dreams.

involuntary imagination also called passive. This is the simplest type and it consists in creating and combining representations, their components into a new image, when a person does not have a direct intention to do this, when consciousness is weak, and there is little control over the flow of representations.

passive imagination occurs in young children. It manifests itself most often when a person is in a drowsy, half-asleep state, then the images arise on their own (therefore arbitrary), one changes to another, they combine, take on the most unrealistic forms and types.

Not only in the drowsy state does such imagination operate, it also manifests itself in the waking state. New ideas do not always appear when a person purposefully directs his consciousness to creation. A feature of the created images is their variability as a result of the instability of trace excitations of the brain and the ease of their relationship with the processes of excitations in adjacent brain centers. Since the trajectory of arousal is not fixed, this makes imagination so easy. It is especially easy in children, in which, moreover, there is no critical thinking, which acts as a filtering mechanism in adults, so the child sometimes gives out the most unrealistic fantasized images. Only by acquiring life experience and forming a critical attitude, such unintentional imagination is gradually put in order and guides consciousness, therefore a deliberate active representation is formed.

Arbitrary imagination, also called active, is the deliberate construction of representations of the corresponding task in a certain activity. Active imagination develops when children begin to play roles (doctor, salesman, teacher). When they try to portray their role, they have to strain their brains as accurately as possible, thus using their imagination. Further development of this process takes place when a person begins to act independently, shows initiative and creative efforts in the process of labor, requiring clear and accurate representations of the subject, which will be created from operations and which must be performed.

active imagination most of all manifested in the creative activity of man. In this process, a person sets himself a task, which is the starting point for the development of the imagination process. Since the products of this activity are objects of art, the imagination is governed by the demands that follow from the specific features of art.

The recreative aspect of this process is contained in the fact that a person must create an image of an object that he has never seen, based on certain descriptions.

Recreating imagination according to the psychological structure, it is the translation of the second-signal stimulus into the second-signal image.

The re-creative imagination embraces what is created, what already exists, and how it exists. It is not separate from reality, and if we move away from it a little, then the imagination will not correspond to the goals of cognition - to expand the field of human knowledge, reducing descriptions to visual images.

The recreating imagination helps a person to be transported to other countries, to space, to see historical events and objects that he has never seen before in his life, but after recreating he can imagine. This process allows people who read fiction to recreate scenes, events, and characters in their minds.

creative imagination also referred to as active imagination, it is involved in the formation of new images in creative activity, art, science, technical activity. Composers, writers, artists resort to such a process in order to display life in images in their art. They create artistic images through which they reflect life as truthfully as possible, and not photographically copy the events of life. These images also reflect the individuality of the creative person, his approach to life, artistic style.

Creative imagination is also used in scientific activities, which cannot be interpreted as ordinary mechanical knowledge of phenomena. The construction of hypotheses is a creative process, which is then confirmed by practice.

There is another peculiar kind of this process - it is a dream, as a representation of what is desired in the future. It is created meaningfully, as opposed to unintentional dreams. A person consciously directs his thoughts to the formation of desired goals, planning strategies to achieve these goals and translating them into real life.

Dreaming can be helpful, but it can also be harmful. When a dream is transcendent, unreal, not connected with life, it weakens the will of a person, reduces his activity and slows down psychological development. Such dreams are empty, meaningless, they are called dreams. When a dream is connected with reality, and potentially real, it helps a person to mobilize, to combine efforts and resources to achieve the goal. Such a dream is an incentive for active action and the rapid development of the best qualities of the individual.

Imagination and creativity

Creativity is the process of creating fundamentally new or improved methods for solving tasks and problems. It becomes obvious that imagination and the creative process are very interconnected.

Imagination is defined here as the transformation of ideas about reality and the creation of new images on this basis. It works every time a person thinks about some object or phenomenon, without even coming into direct contact with it. Thanks to the creative imagination, this representation is transformed.

Creative thinking and imagination have their own specific features. Through this process, it is possible to create completely new unique representations based on the subject's own ideas and thoughts, in which the individuality of the creator is expressed. It can be arbitrary and involuntary. To a large extent, creative imagination or a tendency towards it is conditioned from birth, but it can also be developed.

The development of creative imagination occurs in three stages. The first is a creative idea. At first, a fuzzy image appears in the mind of the creator, the initial idea, which can be created arbitrarily, without purposeful comprehension of the idea. The second stage involves nurturing the idea. A person thinks about strategies for translating an idea into reality, mentally improves it. The third stage completes the nurturing of the idea and brings it to life.

The development of creative imagination is carried out in the process of transition from involuntary to arbitrary, from recreative to creative. During childhood and adolescence, creative imagination has characteristic features, it is special for its magic, fantastic judgments about the world and the absence of a critical component of thinking and rationality. During adolescence, complex changes occur in the body, respectively, in the mind as well. Objectivity is developed, perception becomes more critical. Rationality of perception appears a little later, when a person becomes an adult. Adult reason begins to control the imagination, often too much criticality and practicality weakens the processes of fantasizing, overflowing them with meaning, loading them with some kind of unnecessary, in fact, information.

There are certain methods for developing creative thinking. The most practical method is reading literature and watching scientific films, expanding the circle of one's knowledge, drawing knowledge from different areas of life, memorizing and analyzing information. In this case, a large number of materials for creative processes appear.

Imagine imaginary objects, punch through various manipulations with them. For example, imagine the sea, hear the sound of breaking waves, feel the breath of sea freshness, imagine entering the water, feel its temperature, and so on. Or another example, imagine a pear. Imagine its shape, size, color. Engage tactile perception, imagine it when it is in your hand, feel its surface, aroma. You can mentally bite off a piece of it, imagine the taste.

For the imagination to be arbitrary, it is necessary to work on it, regularly conducting training. To make the effect even greater, you need to look for sources of inspiration, ask friends for help, ask about their ideas. Try group work on creating ideas, sometimes the results are very unique, and a person becomes more active if the imagination process takes place in a circle of other creative individuals.

Development of the imagination

The development of thinking is a purposeful process, the main task of which is the development of brilliance and showiness, originality and depth, as well as the productivity of imaginary images. In its development, imagination as a mental process is subject to the same laws as other ontogenetic transformations of mental processes.

The imagination of a preschooler develops very quickly, it is presented in two forms: the generation of an idea and the strategy for its implementation. Also, the preschooler's imagination performs, in addition to the cognitive-intellectual function, also an affective-protective one, which is expressed in protecting the child's weak personality from too difficult emotional experiences. The cognitive function helps to better recognize the world, interact with it, and solve tasks.

Development of imagination in children has a dependence on the process of objectification of the image by the action. During this process, the child tries to manage the images he created, change them, improve them, that is, take control. But he is not yet able to plan his imagination, a similar ability is developed by the age of four or five.

The affective development of the imagination in children occurs at the age of 2.5 - 4 or 5 years. The negative experiences of children are symbolically displayed in the characters, as a result of which the child begins to imagine situations in which the threat is removed. After that, the ability to relieve emotional stress appears, using the projection mechanism, when the negative qualities that really exist in the child begin to be attributed to other objects.

The development of imagination in children of six or seven years old reaches a level at which many children have already learned to imagine themselves and imagine life in their own world.

The development of the imagination takes place in the process of human ontogenesis, under the influence of life experience, in which the accumulated stock of ideas is stored as material for creating new images. The development of this process is closely related to the individuality of the individual, his upbringing and other mental processes, and the degree of their development (thinking, memory, will). It is very difficult to determine the age limits that characterize the dynamics of the development of the imagination. History knows cases of early development of the imagination. Mozart composed his first music when he was four years old. But there is a downside to this development. Even if the development of the imagination is belated, this does not mean that in mature years it will not be sufficiently developed. A well-known example of such a development is that of Einstein, who, as a child, did not have a highly developed imagination, but over time he developed it and became a genius recognized throughout the world.

In the formation of the imagination, certain patterns are distinguished, although it is difficult to determine the stages of its development themselves. Because it can happen to each person individually. The first manifestations of the process of imagination are very connected with the processes of perception. It is good to give examples on children, because in them the development process takes place more actively and brighter. Children who are one and a half years old do not know how to concentrate their attention on a fairy tale or simple stories, when adults read to them, they are constantly distracted, fall asleep, switch to other activities, but love to hear long stories about themselves. The child loves to listen to stories about himself, his experiences, because he can clearly imagine what the story is about. The relationship of perception and imagination is also observed at the next levels of development. This is noticeable when the child processes his impressions in the game, changing in his imagination objects that were previously perceived. For example, a box in a game becomes a house, a table becomes a cave. The first images of a child always have a connection with his activity. The child embodies the created and processed image into activity, even if this activity is a game.

The development of this process also has a connection with the age of the child, in which he masters speech. With the help of a new education, the child is able to include in the imagination, both concrete images and more abstract ideas. Speech enables the child to switch from presenting images to activities and expressing these images through speech.

When a child masters speech, his practical experience expands, attention develops more, this, in turn, gives the child the opportunity to single out with less zeal individual elements of objects that the child perceives as independent and it is with them that he operates most often in his imagination. Synthesis occurs with significant distortions of reality. Without the necessary experience and a sufficiently developed level of critical thinking, the child is still not able to create such an image that would be close enough to reality. The involuntary emergence of images and ideas appears in the child. Such images are more often formed according to the situation in which he is.

At the next stage, the imagination is supplemented by active forms and becomes arbitrary. Such active forms of this process arose in connection with the active initiative of all adults involved in the development of the child. For example, if adults (parents, educators, teachers) ask a child to do some action, draw, add, depict something, they encourage him to take a specific action, thereby activating his imagination. To do what the adult asked, the child first needs to create in his imagination an image of what should come out in the end. This process is already arbitrary, because the child is able to control it. A little later, he begins to use arbitrary imagination without the participation of adults. Such a breakthrough in the development of the imagination lies in the very nature of the child's play, which becomes more purposeful and plot-driven. The objects that surround the child become for him not only stimuli for objective activity, but become material in the embodiment of images of the imagination.

When a child is closer to five years old, he begins to build, draw, combine things in accordance with his plan. Another striking shift in the process of forming the imagination is manifested at school age. This is facilitated by perceived information, the need to assimilate educational material. In order to keep up with classmates, the child has to activate his imagination, which, in turn, contributes to the progress of the development of abilities in processing the perceived images into images of the imagination.

This concept is understood as a certain cognitive process, consisting in the mental creation of images through the processing of already accumulated material of representations. Thanks to the development of imagination, children learn about the real world around them. It fills the lack of knowledge, allows you to combine individual impressions, forming a complete picture of the universe.

Development tools

The main ways of qualitative development of the imagination are the acquisition of a multilateral and full-fledged life experience through daily communication with people, taking part in various events, and performing various tasks. The more methods of development are accumulated, the more an adult person achieves sensory, mental experience simultaneously with emotional experience. As a result, we begin to eliminate the logical inconsistencies in consciousness provoked by lateral thinking. Although there are no universal recommendations regarding the development of the imagination in an adult, it is worth paying close attention to the reading process, which contributes to the expansion of models of the surrounding reality.

People perceive the model of the world differently, which makes it difficult to assume an objective interpretation of reality. In the saying, familiar to many, that comrades do not taste or color, just such a formulation of a different perception of reality is well displayed.

But any imaginary model can be mentally expanded by trying to understand why others perceive a certain event differently. Methods for developing one's own imagination involve the desire to try to look at the world through the eyes of the interlocutor. Experiment with different exercises to develop your creative imagination. Today feel like a teenager, tomorrow - a pensioner, the day after tomorrow - a woman breastfeeding a baby. Such mental reincarnations will positively affect, become a way to develop fantasy along with imagination.

Why develop?

Using various ways of developing one's own imagination, a person acquires a unique ability to create mental images, form new ideas, presenting objects that are not perceived in reality as comparable. Thanks to this quality, we develop imaginative thinking, and already it allows us to solve various problems without even using.

By applying the recommended games for the development of imagination and tasks, a person learns to transform familiar objects, using them for their own needs in an unusual way. This allows you to plan new goals, simulate behavior, create by means of visual activity, play, remember information better.

Games aimed at developing the imagination begin in childhood, and then they are only improved by adults with constant training. If you do not know good ways to develop the imagination, pay attention to reading books.

Ways to develop fantasy

Many adults are almost completely devoid of this quality. It is difficult for them to come up with tasks to develop their imagination, because they are not even able to compose a fairy tale for a child, come up with an interesting joke, draw a humorous picture or create a carnival costume.

The fault is not at all the lack of talent - in fact, the problem lies in the fact that a person does not know how to develop his own imagination. It is necessary to perform special exercises for the development of creative imagination, which help to overcome the lack of imagination.

Development of the rhythm of attention

To perform the exercise recommended by the methods of developing the imagination, you should completely relax, concentrate all your attention, directing it to the hands. Completely free the cranium, discarding any extraneous thoughts. Repeat this workout every day for 10 minutes, periodically changing the viewing angle or body position.

The main goal is complete concentration on the hands at the same time as the absence of any extraneous thoughts. It is allowed to blink, but it is undesirable to look away, watch only your hands.

imprinting

To develop fantasy and good spatial imagination, find an object in the room that immediately attracts the eye. Then focus your attention on it for at least 5 seconds, mentally photographing this thing.

Close your eyes, hold your breath for a few seconds, try to remember what you saw in your memory. Exhaling the air, free your consciousness from the picture, as if erasing it from memory. This is a good way to develop your creative imagination.

Photo manipulation

A good way to develop spatial imagination is the mental representation of a specific object, which then needs to be moved in space, changing its size and shape. Connect several objects together or lay out the whole picture into its separate fragments.

Move each mentally photographed object, change its shape, having previously determined the desired direction. So you should train until the moment everything starts to turn out easily.

The ability to see

Another option for recommendations regarding exercises for the development of spatial imagination is training with matches. It is required to prepare a couple of hundred matches. Find an assistant who will dictate certain words. You need to associate them with the appropriate way by laying it out of matches. You can finish the exercise when you managed to reproduce at least 50 words. After the dictation, you need to reproduce the words you heard aloud, considering combinations of matches. Using such options for the development of imagination by various means, it will be possible to achieve significant success.

Image creation

To develop the imagination by means of visual activity, various techniques are used:

• Combination. To get a new unique combination, you need to perform an exercise in the development of the imagination, such as rearranging individual elements. Often such a formula is used in their work by writers, artists and scientists to make innovative discoveries. To combine elements, one does not resort to the usual mechanical combination of each individual facet of this thing. Obtaining a new image is formed on the basis of complex analytical and synthetic work. With the help of this, objects are transformed beyond recognition.
• Agglutination. The essence of this method, aimed at developing the creative part of the imagination, lies in the visual gluing of individual visual representations, which will subsequently create a whole and a new image. Examples: in the construction of a trolleybus, elements of both a tram and a bus are present at the same time, some fairy-tale characters are endowed with simultaneous parts of the body of animals and humans.
• Accent. An exercise in developing the imagination in creating a new image is the selection of specific things and the omission of non-essential ones. Attention is drawn to the color range of the selected area, but its natural size is not taken into account, which leads to the creation of a new object.
• Typing. In the process of this action, repeating objects are projected onto a separate new image for the development of creative imagination. This leads to the synthesis of individual images. Writers often resort to such manipulation when they describe certain mental associations in a novel.
• Sharpening. A separate case of emphasizing visual activity. Your attention should be focused on the dimensions of the character, his weight. For example, it is worth using the fabulous Thumbelina and giant giants from fantastic works.
• Schematization. The technique involves exercises for the development of one's creative imagination, in which differences are erased when considered. Other representations are flattened, only common features can be exposed. These techniques are often used by scientists in the technical descriptions of industrial facilities.

Using these techniques, adults are able to solve the problem.

Development of creative perception

In itself, creative perception is a kind of some creative activity of the mind, in which absolutely new images are formed. The stereotypes already existing in the mind become their basis. It is absolutely impossible to develop without reading literature, making associations.

• Letters. It is necessary to choose at your discretion any letter from the alphabet, naming all the things that begin with it and are located around. By training in this way, a person develops memory and attention, as well as thinking and fantasy. Any missing items are quite possible to imagine mentally.
• We name and describe. You will need to choose any subject and try to describe it more accurately. This technique not only contributes to the development of creative abilities, but also enriches creative thinking.

By exercising daily for at least 20 minutes, you can get the desired effect:

• improve your own creativity;
• develop memory simultaneously with thinking;
• become intellectually rich.

Educational books

Many people are skeptical about the fantasy genre, believing that such literature is only appropriate for children. But this is far from being true. Fantastic stories and fairy tales contribute to the development of the described quality both in adolescents and their parents. If there is no desire to read such literature, you can familiarize yourself with the special works of scientists:

• M. Mikhalkov;
• Edward de Bono;
• I. Matyugina.

It is useful to read interesting books by such authors as:

• Michael Bulgakov;
• Joanne Rowling;
• Stephen King;
• Michael Crichton;
• Patrick Suskind.

Reading literature of the fantastic genre helps to improve children's susceptibility to reality. For this reason, young children are able to easily tell fictional stories about their toys, friends, parents, but for adults, such descriptions are incredibly difficult.

In childhood, this skill of fantasizing is always present, but as we grow up, we lose it. They exist without it, but then the world becomes poorer.

After the lateral rupture was made, we had a lot of mostly illogical (lateral) judgments. Now we have to take a step aimed at eliminating the resulting pattern gap. The upcoming stage is connected with the work on the development of creative imagination in order to search for and create full-fledged creative ideas from the metamorphoses obtained in the previous stages. In other words, in this session you will learn how to learn how to repair a lateral tear most effectively. This lesson describes the methods, principles and features of the development of creative imagination, and also contains useful techniques, exercises and games.

What is creative imagination

creative imagination- this is a kind of imagination, during which a person independently creates new images and ideas that are of a certain value. These ideas can be embodied in concrete products of creative activity.

Also close to creative imagination and useful in the process of creative thinking is recreative imagination. Recreating imagination this is the creation of images of objects that were not previously perceived by a person in a finished form, although he was already familiar with similar objects or with their individual elements. At the same time, the knowledge already available to a person about these objects is used, which determines the predominantly reproductive nature of the created images. At the same time, these images are distinguished from memory representations by a great variety, flexibility and dynamism of elements. Simply put, recreative imagination, unlike creative imagination, is more consciously based on previous experience.

The peculiarity of imagination in the creative process lies in the fact that it is the imagination that is difficult to control when creating something new. If at the previous stages it was possible to describe an almost exact algorithm of actions, then the last stage should be based precisely on a person’s ability to creative imagination and associative thinking, you can read about the latter in a special lesson on memory development.

Ability to find solutions to problems

Before proceeding to the means of developing a productive imagination, it is important to note that everyone has the ability to creative imagination. The human mind has an important property, which is the presence of an incentive to eliminate logical contradictions.

For example, many smokers, knowing about the serious dangers of smoking, always know how to explain to themselves and others the reason why they do not give up this addiction. It turns out that smokers are faced with an internal contradiction “smoking is good - smoking is bad”, which in psychology is called cognitive dissonance (). This contradiction causes psychological discomfort, and people are forced to come up with all possible ways to eliminate this contradiction, and some of them reflect the high creative abilities of a person: smoking can be harmful, but pleasant, smoking helps creativity, tunes in the right way, helps to train breathing, reduces weight etc. Almost every smoker has his own excuse, which was caused by a logical contradiction.

It turns out that a person is initially programmed to deal with contradictions and look for a way out of the current difficult situation. In the previous lesson, we had a lot of changed judgments about the object in the selected focus. At the stage of breaking the pattern, we violated the logic, and came to a dissonance that will have to be corrected with the help of our imagination, life experience and natural predisposition to a certain kind of thinking. Moreover, the ability of people to effectively seek solutions to logical contradictions is the stronger, the more experience a person has, ideas about various behaviors and other knowledge about the world around him.

To understand how this mechanism works for you personally, as well as to train your imagination, we suggest that you perform an exercise called "Mixed Letters in Words"

Exercise "Mixed letters in words"

This exercise perfectly shows that our brain can find and understand the meaning of words, even if they try to deliberately confuse it. This happens because we do not read by letters and syllables, but whole words, and in addition, we understand the meaning of words thanks to neighboring words and phrases that our brain has encountered before.

Means of Imagination Development

One of the main ways to develop the imagination is to gain many-sided life experience. The more we communicate with different people, participate in various activities, do different things, the more sensory, emotional and intellectual experience we get. As a result, all this experience is involved in the elimination of logical dissonances that arise during lateral thinking. Naturally, there are no universal recommendations for gaining life experience, but you can pay attention to such things as expanding world models and reading.

Expansion of the number of models of the world. The term "model of the world", as well as framing, which was discussed in the second lesson, is popular in neuro-linguistic programming to describe the different approaches people have to interpret reality.

The variety of world models comes from the fact that reality is perceived by people in different ways, and no one is able to be an objective interpreter of reality. To understand the essence of the process of creating something new, you need to realize that all the ideas we have expressed are perceived by each person differently. For example, some music that you like may cause negative attitudes in other people. The problem of interpreting music shows well the difference in people's ideas: what seems beautiful, original or even brilliant to one, may not seem so to another.

For the development of creative thinking, it is necessary to use the representative features of various models of the world. In other words, the more we communicate with different people and try to understand them, the better our creative thinking will be qualitatively.

Reading. Reading books and other sources of information, including using the technique of speed reading, is a very effective way to develop creative imagination. While reading, there is an active visualization of what you are reading. Since you get no additional information other than the letters that make up words and sentences, you inadvertently have to imagine a picture of what is happening. It is especially useful for the development of creativity to read science fiction, adventure, detective stories and, of course, poetry.

However, the impact of reading books on the ability to think creatively is not entirely clear. For example, Schopenhauer, in his work Parergaund Paralipomena, noted that excessive reading is not only useless, since the reader in the process of reading receives other people's thoughts ready and assimilates them worse than if he came to them on his own, but is also harmful to the mind, since weakens him and teaches him to look for ideas in external sources, and not from his own head. To this we can only add that although reading expands our models of the world, but the habit of looking for truth in books impairs the ability to find a creative solution.

Exercises

For creative thinking, it is important to be able to find connections between already acquired experience and what we are contemplating at the moment, in other words, to build associations. The exercises below are aimed at developing imagination and associative thinking.

Exercise 1: Rotate Shapes

This exercise is aimed at training the imagination. Its use in the development of the imagination was proposed in the 1980s by the famous psychologist Roger Shepard. In each task, you will be shown 2 figures: some are obtained by reflection of each other, others by rotation, and the third ones are just similar and are not rotation and reflection of each other.

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Try for a minute to name as many things as possible that are now in the room with you and begin with the letter: "K". On the letter "P" ... And on the "B"?

Count how many you got. If you try, you can name more than 50 things, and you can name more than 100. To improve this exercise, think about which groups of surrounding objects you forgot to include. For example, the letter "B" can be called:

• things, hanger, (items),
• screws, introduction to the book on the shelf, (details of objects),
• tungsten lamp filament, felt, cotton wool, viscose, etc. (materials),
• pile on the carpet, wax on the parquet (coating),
• hair, eyelids, freckles, whiskey, etc. (body),
• imagination, delight, excitement, the ability to come up with something else (mental concepts),
• air, breeze, word variants, you yourself, everyone else (also on “v”).

Think what else can be called? Practice with other letters: “p”, “k”, “s” are simpler, “d”, “a”, “t” are more difficult.

Exercise 4. Come up with a title and description

Try to come up with a title or caption for the picture, describe what is happening on it:

As you may have guessed, this is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It's called Night Fishing in Antibes. To develop your creative imagination, try to describe interesting things around you more often: paintings, photographs, music, food, and much more. Try to go to museums more often, carefully look at the exhibits. The mystery of Malevich's "Black Square", for example, lies in the fact that if you have imagination and creative perception of the world, you can see a lot for yourself in this picture. If you do not bother your creativity, then you will see only a black geometric figure that does not represent anything. The black square is the mirror of your imagination.

There is another modification to this exercise: while traveling on public transport, try to come up with a name, bio, or other details for strangers who are traveling with you, based only on their appearance. If you are traveling with a friend, share yours with him, and then invite him to do the same, compare your stories.

Imagination games

Imagination is a key factor in the last element of our creative thinking scheme. The better the imagination is developed, the wider the worldview of a person, the faster he is able to find the necessary associations in his head, the more creative his ideas are.

Imagination develops with us constantly, the more we know the world, the better our imagination is developed. However, mere contemplation of the world is not enough. It is important to think about what we see, to analyze what is happening.

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on the topic of this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. Only 1 option can be correct for each question. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on passing. Please note that the questions are different each time, and the options are shuffled.

Imagination is the process of creating new images of the future based on previous experience and creative thinking. It plays an important role in creating images that were not accepted by a person in reality, affects the strength of emotions and feelings, and is an important factor in the development of the human personality.

It tends to develop under the influence of broadening one's horizons, the accumulation of experience, images and information. The development of the imagination is given attention from childhood, many children's games, exercises in preschool and secondary educational institutions are aimed at it.

Another property of the imagination is that it is not constant, periods of decline alternate with rise, the so-called inspiration, but it has been scientifically proven that inspiration and fresh ideas come to us more often in the process of work, after a certain amount of effort.

Classifications

According to the degree of activity:

• Active (stimulates the implementation of the created images, activates creative activity, sometimes requires great effort if the creation of images is necessary for work, for example, as with writers, screenwriters, decorators).
• Passive (does not encourage a person to take active actions, but only generates in his mind images that he is satisfied with without realizing them, or they are in principle not realizable).

By types:

• Productive (creates new elements, the so-called fantasy products, something that did not exist before).
• Reproductive (imagination based on existing phenomena and objects).
• Dreams (a process of imagination aimed at a real future).
• Hallucinations (images created by altered consciousness).
• Dreams.

Regarding past experience:

• Recreating (imagination based on experience).
• Creative (creating new images with minimal reliance on experience)

Creative Imagination Techniques

1. Agglutination (creating a new image from two or more existing ones, for example, the fabulous “Hut on chicken legs” appeared as a combination of “hut” and “chicken”).
2. Analogy (the image is built on the basis of the existing one, but with exaggerated or underestimated characteristics, for example, epic heroes who had fabulous power and could fight the enemy one on one).
3. Typification (a single image of a typical, existing image, for example, paintings by landscape painters).
4. Association (creation of a holistic image based on small units of already existing images).
5. Personification (creation of an animated image on the basis of inanimate elements. Most often used in myths and fairy tales).

Creative imagination can be scientific, artistic, technological - in a word, it can be applied in almost all spheres of human life. It is important to distinguish between creative imagination and dreams, since it belongs to the active type and is further aimed at the realization of the created images, and dreams are a passive type, they may not motivate a person to act.

In his early youth, Walt Disney dreamed of becoming a journalist and got a job at a newspaper, from where he was fired a couple of months later for lack of imagination and unsuitability. Later, he became the greatest cartoonist in history, giving the whole world the magical world of fairy tales.

Methods for developing creative imagination

There are many specific exercises for developing creative imagination, but it is worth noting that the main factor is the accumulation and expansion of experience - scientific, creative, technical. The more information and images in the mind of a person, the more actively his imagination will work, relying on them, synthesizing and giving birth to new ones.

Accumulation of experience can take place in the simplest ways - reading books of different genres (fiction, detective stories, poetry are especially useful), visiting museums, theaters, watching movies, traveling, communicating with different people, mastering new skills.

In addition to expanding your horizons, it is important to develop observation skills - pay attention to the small details of the world around you, try to remember them, for example, small details on the facade of a historic building, shop signs, advertisements, the appearance of passers-by. It seems to us that we do not remember these details, but they remain in our subconscious and, if necessary, emerge during the creative process, helping him.

Imagination exercises

1. Come up with a title and description for the picture. For this exercise, it is advisable to go to a museum of modern fine art or find a gallery of surrealist artists on the Internet. The main condition is that the picture should not be realistic and obvious in content. Study it with your eyes and write it down, or pronounce the options for names and plot. Paintings by Salvador Dali or Pablo Picasso are well suited for this workout.
2. Solving visual riddles or drudles. These are concise images that can be interpreted in different ways, there is no correct answer to the content, all the images that your image creates will be correct and the more of them, the better.
3. Coming up with a biography for passers-by on the street or passengers in transport. When describing a person’s life, try to think through as many details as possible: who his family is, what institute he graduated from, where he works, and so on.
4. Burime or collective writing of poetry. This is not only a fun popular game, but also an effective exercise for developing creativity. The principle of the game: the first participant writes several rhyming lines on a piece of paper, wraps the sheet so that only the last line is visible and passes it on to the next participant, who, on the basis of this line, also comes up with a verse, wraps the sheet and passes on. At the end, the sheet unfolds and the “poem” composed by the common labor is read out by one of the players.

To make the result interesting, it is better to avoid banal rhymes, do not use cognate words and pronouns. The more unexpected the rhyme, the better. You can play burim after discussing the rules in advance (for example, the size of the verse and content), or you can simply come up with funny rhymes without a specific focus.

1. Crocodile. This well-known game for noisy companies is the perfect simulator for creative imagination. The rules of the exercise are simple and familiar to everyone - one participant tells the other a word in his ear (it can be a noun, a stable combination, a verb or an adjective, you can set the rules at the beginning that, for example, only nouns or only verbs are used) and he should only using gestures to explain this word to the rest of the participants.
2. Activity. It is also not only an exercise, but also a popular game and has many varieties. The classic option is a set of cards of varying complexity, in which players need to draw, show or describe verbally the word written on them.

More exercises for development of creative imagination and fantasy can be found on the site:.

Creativity and imagination are qualities that only man possesses of all the inhabitants of the earth. The ability to create something new is now highly valued, and for some activities it is a mandatory requirement. How to develop fantasy and imagination, if for certain purposes the initial stock you have is clearly insufficient? Let's consider several ways.

Activate the right brain

As you know, the left hemisphere is responsible for the processes of analysis and logical thinking. The function of the right is figurative perception, as well as processes that are associated with imagination and creative pursuits. Therefore, in order to give impetus to the work of the "creative" hemisphere, it is necessary to give it a field of activity. The easiest way is to use your left hand in everyday life, or even start learning how to write with it. Since the right hemisphere mainly operates with images, it will be useful to study geometry or 3-D modeling.

Try to play the following game with a loved one

One person starts telling a story and says a few sentences. Then you continue the story, and so on. This exercise very well helps to stir up the imagination and sets in a creative way.

Solve drudles

Drudles are images that can be explained in different ways. These are imaginative exercises that are open to everyone - it doesn't take a genius to define a simple doodle. But drudles really let the imagination run wild. They will be of particular benefit if, after the first idea that comes to mind, you break your head over other possible explanations for the picture.

Bring as much variety into your life as possible

The absence of new ideas often indicates emotional stagnation, the monotony of everyday life. Therefore, try to counter your routine schedule with as many interesting things as possible. It can be traveling, watching movies, reading books. Most importantly, you need to push yourself out of your usual rut. The state of the routine is especially known to people of creative professions - designers, musicians, artists. When they need to do creative work, they make a "knight's move" - ​​switch their attention to something new, which will give them a new portion of impressions.

Follow their method and you, because an interesting life is the very basis on which you can develop fantasy and imagination.

Find a hobby for yourself

This should be the kind of activity that will allow you to train your “creative muscle” every day. Sometimes people think that a hobby should be only one that will help them become famous or wealthy in the future. Often this approach is facilitated by social networks. Peers or associates start with a hobby, and then open their own business.

At the same time, they do not forget to show a photo report on each of their achievements on social networks. Then a person begins to believe that a hobby is certainly an occupation that should bring him money. Frankly speaking, after looking at an advertisement for a sports school opened by a former classmate, it is not always possible to get inspiration.

Therefore, try to let go of yourself and find something for the soul. Let it be writing poetry, patchwork, or growing exotic flowers at home. This hobby should bring you joy, since it is impossible to develop the imagination through violence against oneself or the desire to earn money.

A well-developed imagination will help you achieve success in your career, study and private life. Not only born creatives can enjoy all its advantages. Even with a modest imagination, you can improve your creative thinking skills and enhance your imagination.