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The type of thinking is abstract and concrete. Thinking, its forms and types. Formation of visual perception of the world

The rule prescribed for teachers to "go from the concrete to the abstract" may be considered more familiar than well understood. Few who read and hear it get a clear idea of the starting point, of the concrete, of the nature of the goal of the abstract, and of the precise nature of the path to be traversed from one to the other. Sometimes the prescription is directly misunderstood: it is believed that education should pass from things to thoughts, as if any relation to things that does not capture thinking can have an educational value. Understood in this way, the rule maintains mechanical routine and arousal of the senses at one end of the educational ladder, the lower end, and academic and non-applicable learning at the upper end.

In reality, any handling of objects, even in a child, is full of conclusions, things are covered by the representations they evoke and receive knowledge as reasons for interpretation or as evidence for affirming an opinion. There can be nothing more unnatural than teaching things without thought, sense perceptions without judgments based on them. And if the abstract, to which we must strive, means thought apart from things, then the recommended goal is formal and empty, since real thought always refers more or less directly to things.

But the rule has a meaning which, when understood and completed, establishes the path of development of the logical faculty. What is the meaning? Concrete designates a concept definitely distinguished from other concepts in such a way that it is directly perceived by itself. When we hear the words table, chair, stove, dress, we don't have to think to understand what they mean. The terms evoke the concept so directly that no effort is needed for the transition. But the concepts of certain terms and things are grasped only after the more familiar things are first brought to mind, and then the connections are made between them and what we do not understand. In short, the concepts of the first kind are concrete, the latter abstract.

For a person who feels completely in his field in physics and chemistry, the concepts of an atom and a molecule are obviously concrete. They are constantly used, which does not require the work of thought to understand what they mean. But the uninitiated and novice in science must first remember things that are familiar to him, and go through the process of slow transition; besides, the terms atom and molecule lose their hard-won meaning too easily when familiar things and the path from them to the unknown are out of the mind. The same difference can be illustrated by any technical term: coefficient and exponent in algebra, triangle and square in geometry, as different from the generally accepted concepts; capital and value as they are used in political economy, etc.

This difference is purely relative in connection with the intellectual development of the individual; what is abstract in one period of growth is concrete in another, or, conversely, one discovers that things thought to be quite known contain strange factors or unsolvable problems. There is, however, a general way of subdivision which, by deciding in general which things are within the bounds of habitual knowledge and which are outside them, marks the concrete and the abstract in a more permanent way. These limits are set solely by the requirements of practical life. Such things as sticks and stones, meat and potatoes, houses and trees, are such constant features of the environment with which we must reckon in order to live, that these essential concepts are soon assimilated and inextricably associated with objects.

On the contrary, an abstract phenomenon turns out to be theoretical or something that is not closely related to practical requirements. The abstract thinker (the man of pure science, as he is sometimes called) freely distracts from applications in life, i.e. it does not count for practical use. However, this is only a negative definition. What remains if we exclude the connection with usefulness and application? Obviously, only what relates to knowledge, considered as an end in itself. Many concepts in science are abstract, not only because they cannot be understood without a long apprenticeship in science (which is also true of techniques in the arts), but also because their entire content has been constructed with the sole purpose of facilitating further knowledge, research and speculation. When thinking is used for some purpose, good or low, it is concrete; when used simply as a vehicle for further thinking, it is abstract. For a theoretician, an idea is adequate and complete in itself precisely because it excites and rewards thought; for a medical practitioner, engineer, artist, merchant, politician, it is perfect only if it is used to develop some kind of vital interest, health, well-being, beauty, utility, success, or anything else.

For most people, under ordinary conditions, the practical demands of life are mostly, if not entirely, compulsory. Their main concern is the proper conduct of their affairs. What matters only as a store of material for thinking is pale, alien, almost artificial. Hence the contempt of the practitioner and the successful businessman for the "empty theoretician", hence his conviction that known things may be very good in theory, but not good in practice; in general, the dismissive tone with which he refers to the terms abstract, theoretical and intellectual is far from reasonable.

This attitude is justified, of course, under certain conditions. But neglect of theory does not contain the full truth, as common practical sense recognizes. Even from the point of view of common sense, one can be "too practical", i.e. pay such attention to the immediate practical consequence, so as not to see beyond the tip of the nose or cut the branch on which you sit. The question is about boundaries, about degrees, about proportion, rather than about complete separation. The truly practical man gives freedom to the mind in considering the subject, without demanding too much at every moment the acquisition of an advantage; exclusive concern for useful and applied matters narrows the horizon so much that in the future it leads to destruction. It does not pay off if you tie your thoughts with too short a rope to a utility pole. The capacity for action requires a certain breadth of vision and imagination. People must at least be sufficiently interested in thinking for the sake of thinking to go beyond routine and habit. An interest in knowledge for the sake of knowledge, in thinking for the sake of the free play of thought, is necessary for the emancipation of practical life, in order to make it rich and progressive.

Now we can turn to pedagogical rule of transition from concrete to abstract.

1. If the concrete means thinking applied to actions in order to act more successfully in relation to the difficulties that arise in practice, then "starting with the concrete" means that we must first value activities, especially activities that are not routine and mechanical in nature and therefore require reasonable choice and application of techniques and materials. We do not "follow the order of nature" when we multiply simple sensations or collect physical objects. The teaching of arithmetic is not concrete only because it uses chips, beans, or points; meanwhile, if the use and properties of numerical relations are clearly perceived, the idea of a number is concrete, even if only numbers were used. Which kind of symbols is better to use at the moment - blocks, lines or numbers - depends entirely on the application to this case. If the physical objects used in teaching arithmetic or geography, or anything else, do not illuminate the mind with familiarity with the meaning behind them, then the teaching that uses them is just as abstract as that which provides ready-made definitions and rules, since diverts attention from ideas to simple physical stimuli.

The notion that it is sufficient to place individual physical objects before the senses in order to impress certain ideas on the mind, comes almost to the point of superstition. The introduction of object lessons and sense education marked a significant advance over the earlier method of verbal symbols, and this movement blinded educators to the fact that only half the way had been traveled. Things and sensations really develop the child, but only because he uses them to control his body and plan his actions. Suitable lengthy occupations or activities involve the use of natural materials, tools, energies in such a way as to provoke reflection on what they mean, how they relate to each other and to the achievement of the goal, while the mere showing of things remains fruitless and dead. . A few generations ago, the greatest obstacle to the reform of primary education was the belief in the almost magical effect of the symbols of speech (including numbers) in the education of the mind; at present the way is blocked by the belief in the efficacy of objects precisely as objects. As often happens, the best is the enemy of the best.

2. Interest in the results, in the successful conduct of activities gradually turns into the study of objects, their properties, sequence, structures, causes and effects. An adult working according to a vocation is seldom free from spending time and energy outside the need for direct activity in studying what he is doing. Educational activity in childhood must be organized in such a way that a direct interest in the activity and its result creates a need for attention to things that have more and more indirect and distant relation to the original activity. A direct interest in carpentry or trade will organically and gradually lead to an interest in geometric and mechanical problems. An interest in cooking will develop into an interest in chemical experiments and in the physiology and hygiene of bodily growth. Painting pictures will turn into an interest in reproduction techniques and aesthetics, and so on. This development is what is denoted by the term "transition" in the rule "to pass from the concrete to the abstract", it represents the dynamics and the truly educational factor of the process.

3. The result is that the abstract to which education must lead is the interest in the intellectual content for its own sake, the enjoyment of thinking for the sake of thinking. It has long been known that actions and processes that are initially dependent on something else develop and maintain an absorbing meaning of their own. So it is with thought and knowledge. At first incidental to results and verification beyond them, they increasingly attract attention until they become ends rather than means. Children are constantly immersed, without any compulsion, in reflective research and testing for the sake of what is in their interest to do well. Habits of thought, thus developed, may increase in volume and spread until they acquire an independent meaning.

The three examples given in chapter six represented an ascending cycle from the practical to the theoretical. The thought of keeping a given promise is obviously of a specific kind. The desire to find out the meaning of a known part of the boat is an example of an intermediate gender. The basis for existence and the position of the pole is a practical one, so for the architect the problem was purely concrete, namely the maintenance of a certain system of action. But for the boat passenger, the problem was theoretical, more or less speculative. It made no difference to his move whether he found out the meaning of the pole. The third case, the appearance and movement of bubbles, is an example of a purely theoretical, abstract case. There is no overcoming of physical obstacles, no adaptation of external means to ends. Curiosity, intellectual curiosity, is apparently caused by an exceptional phenomenon, and thinking simply tries to figure out the apparent exception in terms of recognized principles.

It should be pointed out that abstract thinking is one of the goals, not the ultimate goal. The ability to keep thinking on matters remote from direct utility has grown out of, but does not replace, a practical and direct way of thinking. The goal of education is not to destroy the ability to think in such a way as to overcome difficulties and to agree on means and ends, education does not mean to replace this ability with abstract reflection. Nor is theoretical thinking a higher type of thinking than practical thinking. A person who owns both types of thinking at will is higher than one who owns only one. Methods which, by developing abstract intellectual faculties, weaken the habit of practical or concrete thinking, are as far from an educational ideal as those methods which, by developing the ability to design, acquire, arrange, provide, do not give pleasure from thinking, regardless of its practical consequences.

Educators should also note the enormous individual differences that exist, they should not try to bring everyone into one mode and one model. With many (probably the majority) the propensity to perform, the habit of the mind to think for the purposes of behavior and activity, and not for the sake of knowledge, remains predominant to the end. Engineers, lawyers, doctors, merchants are much more numerous among adults than researchers, scientists and philosophers. As long as education strives to create people who, however special their professional interests and goals, do not exclude the spirit of scientists, philosophers and researchers, there is no reason for education to consider one mental habit essentially superior to another and deliberately try to turn the type from practical to theoretical. Haven't our schools been one-sidedly devoted to a more abstract type of thinking, thus being unfair to the majority of students? Hasn't the idea of "liberal" and "humanitarian" education very often led in practice to the creation of technical (as too specialized) thinkers?

The goal of education should be to achieve a balanced interaction of both mental types, when sufficient attention is paid to the inclinations of the individual, and not constrained and maimed by the abilities that are naturally strong in him. The narrowness of individuals in a strictly concrete direction must be freed from prejudices. Every opportunity that occurs in their practical activities should be seized for the development of curiosity and a tendency to intellectual problems. The natural inclination is not violated, but expanded. As for a smaller number of those who are inclined towards abstract, purely intellectual questions, care must be taken to multiply favorable occasions and increase the need for the application of ideas, for the transformation of symbolic truths into the conditions of social life and its purpose. Every human being has both faculties, and every individual will be more active and happier if both faculties are developed in free and close interaction.

Visual and effective- a type of thinking based on the direct perception of objects.

Specifically effective, or objectively effective, thinking is aimed at solving specific problems in the conditions of production, constructive, organizational and other practical activities of people. Practical thinking is, first of all, technical, constructive thinking. It consists in the understanding of technology and in the ability of a person to independently solve technical problems. The process of technical activity is the process of interaction between mental and practical components of work. Complex operations of abstract thinking are intertwined with the practical actions of a person, inextricably linked with them. Characteristic features concrete-effective thinking are bright strong observation, attention to detail, particulars and the ability to use them in a particular situation, operating with spatial images and schemes, the ability to quickly move from thinking to action and back. It is in this kind of thinking that the unity of thought and will is manifested to the greatest extent.

Concrete-figurative thinking

Visual-figurative- a type of thinking characterized by reliance on ideas and images.

Concrete-figurative (visual-figurative), or artistic, thinking is characterized by the fact that a person embodies abstract thoughts, generalizations into concrete images.

Abstract thinking

Verbal-logical- a kind of thinking, carried out with the help of logical operations with concepts.

Abstract, or verbal-logical, thinking is mainly aimed at finding common patterns in nature and human society. Abstract, theoretical thinking reflects general connections and relationships. It operates mainly with concepts, broad categories, and images, representations in it play an auxiliary role.

All three types of thinking are closely related to each other. Many people have equally developed concrete-active, concrete-figurative and theoretical thinking, but depending on the nature of the tasks that a person solves, then one, then another, then a third type of thinking comes to the fore.

Types and types of thinking

Practical-active, visual-figurative and theoretical-abstract - these are the interconnected types of thinking. In the process of the historical development of mankind, the human intellect was initially formed in the course of practical activity. So, people learned to measure land plots empirically, and then on this basis a special theoretical science gradually arose - geometry.

Genetically the earliest kind of thinking - action-oriented thinking; actions with objects are of decisive importance in it (in its infancy it is also observed in animals).

On the basis of practical-effective, manipulative thinking arises visual-figurative thinking. It is characterized by operating with visual images in the mind.

The highest level of thinking is abstract, abstract thinking. However, here, too, thinking retains a connection with practice. As they say, there is nothing more practical than a correct theory.

The thinking of individuals is also divided into practical-effective, figurative and abstract (theoretical).

But in the process of life, one and the same person comes to the fore either one or another type of thinking. So, everyday affairs require practical-effective thinking, and a report on a scientific topic - theoretical thinking, etc.

Structural unit of practical-effective (operational) thinking - action; artistic - image; scientific thinking - concept.

Depending on the depth of generalization, empirical and theoretical thinking are distinguished.

empirical thinking(from Greek empeiria - experience) gives primary generalizations based on experience. These generalizations are made at a low level of abstraction. Empirical knowledge is the lowest, elementary level of knowledge. Empirical thinking should not be confused with practical thinking.

As noted by the well-known psychologist V. M. Teplov (“The Mind of a Commander”), many psychologists take the work of a scientist, a theorist, as the only model of mental activity. Meanwhile, practical activity requires no less intellectual effort.

The mental activity of the theoretician is concentrated mainly on the first part of the path of cognition - a temporary retreat, a retreat from practice. The mental activity of the practitioner is mainly focused on its second part - on the transition from abstract thinking to practice, that is, on that "hit" in practice, for the sake of which the theoretical digression is made.

A feature of practical thinking is subtle observation, the ability to focus attention on individual details of an event, the ability to use to solve a particular problem that special and singular that was not completely included in theoretical generalization, the ability to quickly move from thinking to action.

In the practical thinking of a person, the optimal ratio of his mind and will, the cognitive, regulatory and energy capabilities of the individual is essential. Practical thinking is associated with the operational setting of priority goals, the development of flexible plans, programs, great self-control in stressful conditions of activity.

Theoretical thinking reveals universal relations, explores the object of knowledge in the system of its necessary connections. Its result is the construction of conceptual models, the creation of theories, the generalization of experience, the disclosure of the patterns of development of various phenomena, the knowledge of which ensures the transformative activity of man. Theoretical thinking is inextricably linked with practice, but in its final results it has relative independence; it is based on previous knowledge and, in turn, serves as the basis for subsequent knowledge.

Algorithmic, discursive, heuristic and creative thinking are distinguished depending on the standard/non-standard nature of the tasks being solved and operational procedures.

Algorithmic thinking is focused on pre-established rules, the generally accepted sequence of actions necessary to solve typical problems.

discursive(from lat. discursus - reasoning) thinking based on a system of interconnected inferences.

heuristic thinking(from the Greek heuresko - I find) - this is productive thinking, consisting in solving non-standard tasks.

Creative thinking- thinking that leads to new discoveries, fundamentally new results.

There are also reproductive and productive thinking.

reproductive thinking- reproduction of previously obtained results. In this case, thinking merges with memory.

Productive Thinking- thinking, leading to new cognitive results.

The second version of the detailed description.

Sensations, perception, memory - this is the first stage of cognition inherent in most animals, giving only an external picture of the world, 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 have become 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 (premises), 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 by 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. IN 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 (scientific description of the blockade 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 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 intelligence factors 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).

According to the American psychologist J. Cattell (1860–1944), every person already from birth has a potential intellect, which underlies the ability to think, abstract and reason.

Intellectual abilities manifest themselves in different ways: the product of practical thinking is the world of material culture; figurative - works of art, drawings, diagrams, plans, maps; verbal-logical - scientific knowledge.

Around the age of 20–21, verbal-logical intelligence reaches its peak.

Speech.

Basic properties of speech.

The most important achievement of man, which allowed him to use universal human experience, both past and present, was speech communication, which developed on the basis of labor activity. Speech is language in action. Speech is the process of communication between people through language.

In psychology, it is customary to separate the concepts of "language" and "speech". Language- This is a system of conditional symbols, with the help of which combinations of sounds are transmitted that have a certain meaning and meaning for people. Language is produced by society and is a form of reflection in the public consciousness of people of their social existence. Language, being formed in the process of communication between people, is at the same time a product of socio-historical development. Moreover, one of the phenomena of the language is that each person finds a ready-made language spoken by others, and in the process of his development he learns it. However, having become a native speaker, a person becomes a potential source of development and modernization of the language he owns. Unlike language, it is customary to call speech the process of verbal communication, which can be carried out in the form of a message, indication, question, order. Communication through language is no less complex than language itself. In order to convey any information with the help of speech, it is necessary not only to select the appropriate words that have a certain meaning, but also to specify them. Every word is a generalization, therefore in speech it must be narrowed down to a certain level, or meaning. This is achieved by introducing the word into a specific context. In addition to the content transmitted through verbal meanings, speech also expresses our emotional attitude to what we say. This phenomenon is called the emotional-expressive side of speech and is due to the tone of the sound of words that we use to pronounce the phrase being expressed.

Speech has three functions: significative (designations), generalizations, communications (transfer of knowledge, relationships, feelings).

Significant function distinguishes human speech from animal communication. A person's idea of an object or phenomenon is associated with a word. Mutual understanding in the process of communication is based, therefore, on the unity of the designation of objects and phenomena by the perceiver and the speaker.

The function of generalization is related to the fact that the word denotes not only a separate, given object, but a whole group of similar objects and is always the bearer of their essential features.

The third function of speech is the function of communication, i.e. transfer of information. In the communicative function of speech, three sides are distinguished: informational, expressive and volitional. The information side is manifested in the transfer of knowledge and is closely related to the functions of designation and generalization. The expressive side of speech helps to convey the feelings and attitudes of the speaker to the subject of the message. The volitional side is aimed at subordinating the listener to the speaker's intention.

Speech activity can be carried out by a person both on the basis of the reproduction of speech images in the external and in the internal plan. In this regard, it is customary to distinguish external and internal speech. External speech is addressed to other people, internal speech is addressed to oneself. External speech can be oral and written. Oral speech is carried out through the reproduction of sound images of words. Oral speech can be monologic, dialogical and egocentric. Monologue and dialogic speech are addressed to other people, egocentric - to oneself. Monologue speech is the most difficult type of oral speech.

Inner speech may precede external speech (oral and written) and be the planning phase of its implementation. Since it is addressed to itself, there is no need to carry out the statement in expanded form. Hence, inner speech is folded, compressed, fragmented and can exist on the basis of the mental reproduction of individual words that carry the main semantic load. The words that a person uses in inner speech differ from the words of outer speech in that they are fragmentary, abbreviated and can merge with other words. On the basis of inner speech, the intellectual and spiritual life of the individual is carried out, its moral views and beliefs, dreams and ideals, desires and aspirations, doubts and beliefs are manifested.

Along with external and internal speech, there is the so-called egocentric speech, which occupies an intermediate place between them. According to the form of its existence, it can be attributed to external speech, since it can manifest itself either in the form of an oral statement or in writing, but unlike external speech, it is addressed not to other people, but to oneself. Egocentric speech is manifested in both children and adults.

The second version of the description.

Speech is language in action. Language is a system of signs that includes words with their meanings plus syntax - a set of rules by which sentences are built. The word is a kind of sign, since the latter are present in various kinds of formalized languages. The objective property of a verbal sign, which determines theoretical activity, is the meaning of the word, which is the relation of the sign (the word in this case) to the object designated in reality, regardless (abstractly) of how it is represented in individual consciousness.

Unlike the meaning of a word, personal meaning is a reflection in the individual consciousness of the place that a given object (phenomenon) occupies in the system of activity of a particular person. If the meaning unites the socially significant features of the word, then the personal meaning is the subjective experience of its content.

The following main functions of the language are distinguished:

a means of subsistence, transmission and assimilation of socio-historical experience

means of communication (communication)

an instrument of intellectual activity (perception, memory, thinking, imagination)

Performing the first function, the language serves as a means of encoding information about the studied properties of objects and phenomena. Through language, information about the surrounding world and the person himself, received by previous generations, becomes the property of subsequent generations. Performing the function of a means of communication, the language allows you to influence the interlocutor directly (if we directly indicate what needs to be done) or indirectly (if we tell him information that is important for his activities, which he will be guided by immediately or at another time in the appropriate situations).

Development, change in the lexical composition of the language, its grammatical and sound (see also speech sound, phoneme) system is possible only with the continuous reproduction of linguistic structures in living speech. The absence of verbal communication leads to the death of the language or, in the presence of a sufficient number of written documents, to its conservation at a certain level of development, as is the case with Latin and ancient Greek. At the same time, the grammatical structure of the language remains unchanged, the vocabulary does not reflect the changes taking place in the surrounding world and human activity, and the phonetic structure can only be theoretically reconstructed on the basis of “descendent” languages.

Speech is an essential element of human activity, allowing a person to learn about the world around him, to transfer his knowledge and experience to other people, to accumulate them for transmission to subsequent generations.

Being a means of expressing thoughts, speech, in the course of its development in ontogenesis, becomes the main (but not the only) mechanism of human thinking. Higher, abstract thinking is impossible without speech activity.

IP Pavlov noted that only speech activity gives a person the opportunity to abstract from reality and generalize, which is a distinctive feature of human thinking.

Depending on the form of communication, speech activity is divided into oral(implying speaking And hearing) And written (letter And reading).

In the course of "productive" types of speech activity - speaking And letters- the following main groups of mental and physiological mechanisms are involved:

a mechanism for programming a speech statement (transmitted meaning);

a group of mechanisms associated with the construction of the grammatical structure of an utterance, the search for the right words by semantic features, the choice of a specific sound (in oral speech, see speech sound, phoneme) or graphic system (in written speech, see grapheme, letter); According to modern studies, the performance of these functions is localized in the CNS mainly in the area of the temporal cortex, called Broca's Area (Brodmann's Area 45) and which was one of the last stages of human evolution.

Physiological mechanisms that ensure the real implementation of speech utterance (the physical process of "speaking" or "writing").

The rules of language construction have ethno-specific features, which are expressed in the system of phonetic, lexical, grammatical and stylistic means and communication rules in a given language. Speech is closely integrated with all human mental processes. The linguistic side of human speech behavior is studied by psycholinguistics.

Speech properties:

2. Comprehensibility of speech is the syntactically correct construction of sentences, as well as the use of pauses in appropriate places or highlighting words with the help of logical stress;

3. The expressiveness of speech is its emotional saturation, the richness of language means, their diversity. In its expressiveness, it can be bright, energetic and, conversely, lethargic, poor;

4. The effectiveness of speech is the property of speech, which consists in its influence on the thoughts, feelings and will of other people, on their beliefs and behavior.

Detailed description.

General characteristics of speech. The formation of consciousness in the historical process is inextricably linked with the beginning and development of social and labor activity of people. The need for cooperation gave rise to the need for a verbal way of communicating people with each other. The use of linguistic means of communication is a distinctive feature of human society. Thanks to language, people could not only influence each other, but also pass on the experience accumulated over generations. The purpose of a person's actions was formalized in the word. Denoted by the word, the goal gave them a reasonable directional character. Words fixed those laws, connections and dependencies that people revealed in their practical activities. Thanks to speech, a person cognized himself as a subject of activity and as a subject of communication. Mastering the language has changed all the relationship of a person with the outside world, rebuilt his cognitive and practical activities, communication with other people.

For a deeper understanding of the role of speech in mental development, one should first of all clarify such close, but not identical, concepts as "language", "speech", "second signal system".

Language - a public phenomenon. Language is understood as a system of means of communication developed in the course of historical development. Originating at that distant time, when primitive people united for joint labor activity felt the need to say something to each other, the language developed along with the development of society. New discoveries in science and technology, new relationships that develop between people, were reflected in the language. It was enriched with new words, each of which denoted some concept. The development of thought was traced in a change in language, in the increasingly complex structure of sentences. Therefore, mastering the language as a means of communication, the child infinitely pushes the narrow limits of personal cognitive activity, joining the level of knowledge achieved by mankind, gets the opportunity to fix in the word and generalize his personal experience.

The study of the process of origin and meaning of words and grammatical forms in the languages of different peoples is carried out by representatives of linguistics - linguists, linguists.

Speech – one of the types of communicative activity carried out in the form of linguistic communication. Everyone uses their native language to express their thoughts and understand the thoughts expressed by others. The child not only learns the words and grammatical forms of the language, but also relates them to the content that constitutes the meaning of the word assigned to him in his native language by the entire process of the history of the development of the people. However, at each stage of development, the child understands the content of the word differently. The word, along with its inherent meaning, he masters very early. The concept denoted by this word, being a generalized image of reality, grows, expands and deepens as the child develops.

In this way, speech - it is a language in action, a peculiar form of human cognition of objects and phenomena of reality and a means of communication between people.

Unlike perception - the process of direct reflection of things - speech is a form of mediated cognition of reality, its reflection through the native language. If the language is one for the whole people, then the speech of each person is individual. Therefore, speech, on the one hand, is poorer than language, since a person in the practice of communication usually uses only a small part of the vocabulary and various grammatical structures of his native language. On the other hand, speech is richer than language, since a person, speaking about something, expresses his attitude both to what he is talking about and to whom he is talking to. His speech acquires intonational expressiveness, its rhythm, tempo, and character change. Therefore, a person in communication with other people can say more than the words that he used mean (subtext of speech). But in order for a person to be able to accurately and subtly convey thoughts to another person, and in such a way as to influence him, to be correctly understood, he must be fluent in his native language.

The development of speech is the process of mastering the native language, the ability to use it as a means of knowing the world around us, mastering the experience accumulated by mankind, as a means of knowing oneself and self-regulation, as a means of communication and interaction between people.

Psychology is the study of the development of speech in ontogeny.

The physiological basis of speech is the activity of the second signal system. The doctrine of the second signal system is the doctrine of the word as a signal. Studying the patterns of reflex activity of animals and humans, I.P. Pavlov singled out the word as a special signal. A feature of the word is its generalizing nature, which significantly changes both the action of the stimulus itself and the responses of a person. The study of the meaning of a word in the formation of neural connections is the task of physiologists, who have shown the generalizing role of the word, the speed and strength of the connections formed in response to a stimulus, and the possibility of their wide and easy transfer.

Speech, like any other mental process, is impossible without the active participation of the first signal system. Being, as in thinking, leading and determining, the second signal system works in close interaction with the first. Violation of this interaction leads to the disintegration of both thinking and speech - it turns into a meaningless stream of words.

Functions of speech. In the mental life of a person, speech performs a number of functions. First of all, it is a means of communication. (communicative function), that is, the transfer of information, and acts as an external speech behavior aimed at contacts with other people. In the communicative function of speech, three sides are distinguished: 1) informational, which is manifested in the transfer of social experience and knowledge; 2) expressive, helping to convey the feelings and attitudes of the speaker to the subject of the message; 3) volitional, aimed at subordinating the listener to the speaker's intention. Being a means of communication, speech also serves as a means of influencing some people on others (assignment, order, persuasion).

Speech also functions generalizations and abstractions. This function is due to the fact that the word denotes not only a separate, specific object, but also a whole group of similar objects and is always the bearer of their essential features. Summarizing the perceived phenomenon in a word, we simultaneously abstract from a number of specific features. So, pronouncing the word "dog", we abstract from all the features of the appearance of a shepherd dog, poodle, bulldog, doberman and fix in the word that which is common to them.

Since speech is also a means of designation, it performs significative(sign) function. If the word did not have a denoting function, it could not be understood by other people, that is, speech would lose its communicative function, would cease to be speech. Mutual understanding in the process of communication is based on the unity of the designation of objects and phenomena by the perceiver and the speaker. The significative function distinguishes human speech from animal communication.

All of these functions are closely intertwined in a single stream of speech communication.

Language and speech are specific forms of reflection of reality: reflecting, speech denotes objects and phenomena. What is missing in the experience of people cannot be in their language and speech.

Types of speech. The word as an irritant exists in three forms: audible, visible and spoken. Depending on this, two forms of speech are distinguished - external (loud) and internal (hidden) speech (thinking).

External speech includes several psychologically peculiar types of speech: oral, or colloquial (monologue and dialogic), and written, which a person masters by mastering reading and writing.

The oldest form of speech is oral dialogical speech. Dialogue is a direct communication between two or more people, which takes place in the form of a conversation or an exchange of remarks about current events. Dialogic speech is the simplest form of speech, firstly, because it is a supported speech: the interlocutor can ask clarifying questions, gives replicas, helps to complete the thought. Secondly, the dialogue is conducted with the emotionally expressive contact of the speakers in the conditions of their mutual perception, when they can also influence each other with gestures, facial expressions, timbre and intonation of the voice.

monologue speech is a long presentation of a system of thoughts, knowledge by one person. This is always a coherent, contextual speech that meets the requirements of consistency, evidence of presentation and grammatically correct construction of sentences. The forms of monologue speech are a report, a lecture, a speech, a story. Monologue speech necessarily involves contact with the audience, therefore, it requires careful preparation.

Written speech is a kind of monologue speech, but it is even more developed than oral monologue speech. This is due to the fact that written speech does not imply feedback from the interlocutor and does not have any additional means of influencing him, except for the words themselves, their order and the punctuation marks that organize the sentence. Mastering written speech develops completely new psychophysiological mechanisms of speech. Written speech is perceived by the eye and produced by the hand, while oral speech functions due to auditory-kinesthetic neural connections. A single style of human speech activity is achieved on the basis of complex systems of interanalyzer connections in the cerebral cortex, coordinated by the activity of the second signaling system.

Written speech opens up boundless horizons for a person to become familiar with world culture and is a necessary element in the education of a person.

Internal speech is not a means of communication. This is a special type of speech activity, formed on the basis of external. In inner speech, a thought is formed and exists; it acts as a phase of activity planning.

Inner speech is characterized by some features:

It exists as a kinesthetic, auditory or visual image of a word;

It is characterized by fragmentation, fragmentation, situationality;

Inner speech is curtailed: most of the members of the sentence are omitted in it, only the words that determine the essence of thought remain. Figuratively speaking, she wears "telegraph style";

The structure of the word also changes in it: in the words of the Russian language, vowels drop out as carrying a smaller semantic load;

She is silent.

Preschool children have a peculiar type of speech - egocentric speech. This is the speech of the child, addressed to himself, which is the transition of external colloquial speech into internal. Such a transition occurs in a child in conditions of problematic activity, when there is a need to comprehend the action being performed and direct it towards achieving a practical goal.

A person's speech has many paralinguistic features: intonation, volume, tempo, pause and other characteristics that reflect a person's attitude to what he says, his emotional state at the moment. The paralinguistic components of speech also include bodily movements that accompany a speech statement: gestures, facial expressions, pantomime, as well as features of a person's handwriting.

The speech of people of different cultures differs even among those who speak the same language. After listening to a stranger for a certain time, even without seeing him in person, one can judge what the general level of his intellectual development and his general culture are. Obviously, people belonging to different social groups speak differently, and therefore speech can also be used to determine the social origin and social affiliation of a person.

It is also customary to distinguish between speech passive(understood) - listening and active(colloquial). As a rule, passive speech in both children and adults is much richer than active speech.

The use of speech in psychodiagnostics. Psycholinguistic features of speech open up wide opportunities for its use in determining the level of intellectual (cognitive) and personal development of a person.

In almost all intelligence tests there are special speech tasks, the nature of which is used to judge the level of a person’s mental development (tests by D. Veksler, progressive matrices by J. Raven, STUR - a school test of mental development, CAT - a short selection test by V.N. Buzin) .

All personality tests use human speech in one way or another (C. Osgood's semantic differential, G. Kelly's repertoire grid technique).

In tests-questionnaires, the appeal to speech is direct. In them, the personality of the respondent is judged by the content of the answers to the questions posed to him (MMPI - a multi-phase personality questionnaire of the state of Minnesota, PDO - A.E. Lichko's pathocharacterological diagnostic questionnaire).

In projective tests, spontaneous speech statements of a person, caused by specific situations or pictures, are subjected to meaningful analysis, which includes the study of the vocabulary and meaning of the subject's statements (TAT - thematic apperceptive test of H. Morgan and G. Murray, G. Rorschach test). Projective tests are based on the assumption that the paralinguistic features of a person's spontaneous speech are well manifested in the projection (S. Rosenzweig's test).

Imagination.

Imagination- the ability of a person to spontaneously arise or deliberately build in the consciousness of images, ideas, ideas of objects that in experience in a holistic form were not perceived or cannot be perceived through the senses (such as events of history, the supposed future, phenomena of the unperceivable or the world, not existing in general - supernatural characters of fairy tales, myths, etc.); the ability of consciousness to create images, representations, ideas and manipulate them; plays a key role in the following mental processes: modeling, planning, creativity, play, memory. In a broad sense, every process that takes place "in images" is imagination [ source not specified 1988 days] .

Imagination is the basis of visual-figurative thinking, which allows a person to navigate the situation and solve problems without the direct intervention of practical actions. It helps him in many ways in those cases of life when practical actions are either impossible, or difficult, or simply inappropriate. For example, when modeling abstract processes and objects.

A kind of creative imagination is fantasy. Imagination is one of the forms of mental reflection of the world. The most traditional point of view is the definition of imagination as a process (A. V. Petrovsky and M. G. Yaroshevsky, V. G. Kazakov and L. L. Kondratieva and others). According to M. V. Gamezo and I. A. Domashenko: “Imagination is a mental process that consists in creating new images (representations) by processing the material of perceptions and ideas obtained in previous experience.” Domestic authors also consider this phenomenon as an ability (V. T. Kudryavtsev, L. S. Vygotsky) and as a specific activity (L. D. Stolyarenko, B. M. Teplov). Taking into account the complex functional structure, L. S. Vygotsky considered it appropriate to use the concept of a psychological system.

According to E. V. Ilyenkov, the traditional understanding of the imagination reflects only its derivative function. The main one - allows you to see what is, what lies before your eyes, that is, the main function of the imagination is the transformation of an optical phenomenon on the surface of the retina into an image of an external thing [

Classification of imagination processes.

1. Based on the results:

Reproductive imagination (recreating reality as it is)

Productive (creative) imagination:

with relative novelty of images;

with absolute novelty of images.

2. According to the degree of purposefulness:

Active (voluntary) - includes recreative and creative imagination;

· passive (involuntary) - includes unintentional and unpredictable imagination.

3. By type of images:

concrete;

abstract.

4. According to the methods of imagination:

· agglutination - the connection of objects and properties that are not connected in reality;

hyperbolization - an increase in the object, its parts and intensity of properties;

substitution - replacement of an object, process or parts with others that are somewhat similar;

· concentration (concentrating integration) - complete or significant inclusion of some parts into others, including by combining, "fusion", "dissolution";

aggregation - in technology, combining into one coherent whole of objects (nodes, mechanisms) that have a relatively independent purpose;

miniaturization - reduction of an object, its parts and intensity of properties. The technique of creating a new mental image, the reverse of hyperbolization;

dismemberment and elimination - analysis, division of the whole into parts and with the removal of some of them;

transfer (heuristic transduction) - transfer of parts, processes from one integral system to another;

permutation - moving parts of the whole to other places, including with a change in interaction;

regeneration - completion of the missing, removed one or more parts;

giving similarity, similarity in form, material, device, principle of operation, for example, technical devices - to living beings;

opposition - a technique for transforming ideas, consisting in the conscious search and use of phenomena, processes, objects that have properties that are opposite to the original image;

reintegration - completion to the whole from one main, important part or process;

schematization - highlighting differences and identifying similarities;

typification - highlighting the essential, recurring in homogeneous phenomena;

· transformation - transformation of the external form.

5. According to the degree of willpower:

· intentional;

unintentional.

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