Thinking- this is a socially conditioned, inextricably linked with speech, mental process of searching and discovering something essentially new, a process of mediated and generalized reflection of reality in the course of its analysis and synthesis. Thinking arises on the basis of practical activity from sensory knowledge and goes far beyond its limits.
Physiological basis of thinking are temporary nerve connections (conditioned reflexes) that are formed in the cortex cerebral hemispheres. These conditioned reflexes arise under the influence of second signals (words, thoughts), reflecting reality, but they necessarily arise on the basis of the first signal system (sensations, perceptions, ideas).
In psychology, a common classification of types of thinking is: 1) visual-effective, 2) visual-figurative and 3) abstract (theoretical) thinking.
Visual-effective thinking . In the course of historical development, people solved the problems facing them first in terms of practical activity, only then did theoretical activity emerge from it. For example, at first our distant ancestor learned to measure practically (in steps, etc.) land, and only then, on the basis of the knowledge accumulated in the course of this practical activity, geometry gradually emerged and developed as a special theoretical science.
Visual-figurative thinking. IN simplest form Visual-figurative thinking occurs primarily in preschool children, i.e., at the age of four to seven years. Although the connection between thinking and practical actions is preserved, it is not as close, direct and immediate as before. During the analysis and synthesis of a cognizable object, a child does not necessarily and does not always have to touch the object that interests him with his hands. In many cases, systematic practical manipulation (action) with an object is not required, but in all cases it is necessary to clearly perceive and visually represent this object.
Abstract thinking. On the basis of practical and visual-sensory experience, children of school age develop - first in the simplest forms - abstract thinking, i.e. thinking in the form abstract concepts.
Verbal-logical thinking - one of the types of thinking, characterized by the use of concepts and logical structures. Verbal-logical thinking operates on the basis linguistic means and represents the latest stage in the historical and ontogenetic development of thinking. In the structure of verbal-logical thinking, the different kinds generalizations.
Thinking is a mental-cognitive process that allows one to reflect inaccessible direct perception in the human mind. Thinking is a process associated with consciousness and speech. Properties of thinking: 1. Mediocrity of thinking– a way of transferring knowledge from generation to generation. 2. Thinking is socially conditioned– develops in society (society). 3. Generalization of thinking– generalization of the essential properties of the surrounding world. 4. Purposefulness and randomness– thinking is always associated with solving a problem and is accompanied by volitional efforts. 5. Thinking is characterized by a connection with consciousness and unconsciousness.
Thinking operations: (Functions)
1. Concept is one of the logical forms of thinking, reflecting the essential properties, connections and relationships of objects and phenomena, expressed in a word or group of words.
2. Judgment is one of the logical forms of thinking in which the connection between two concepts is expressed.
3. Inference is a form of thinking in which a certain conclusion is drawn based on several judgments.
4. Analogy is an inference in which a conclusion is drawn on the basis of partial similarities between phenomena, without sufficient examination of all conditions.
5. Analysis is a mental operation in which a complex object is divided into its component parts.
6. Synthesis is a mental operation consisting of combining various parts, elements, sides of an object into a single whole.
7. Generalization is the process of highlighting similarities between objects, highlighting what is common in these objects. For example, you can find something similar between the most dissimilar objects and combine them into one class of color commonality: cherry, peony, blood, raw meat, boiled crayfish
8.comparison(establishing similarities and differences between objects),
9. abstraction(highlighting important ones) this moment properties of an object and ignoring those qualities of an object that seem unimportant to us at the moment)
10. generalization(identification of common features of a class of objects).
The physiological basis of thinking is temporary nerve connections (conditioned reflexes), which are formed in the cerebral cortex. These conditioned reflexes arise under the influence of second signals (words, thoughts), reflecting reality, but they necessarily arise on the basis of the first signal system (sensations, perceptions, ideas).
In psychology, a common classification of types of thinking is: 1) visual-effective, 2) visual-figurative and 3) abstract (theoretical) thinking.
36 Approaches to the study of thinking. Associative psychology of thinking. Psychology of thinking within the framework of the Würzburg school and Gestalt psychology.
Thinking as an association of ideas
The psychology of thinking began to be specifically developed only in the 20th century. Until this time the main one was associative psychology- all mental processes proceed according to the laws of association and all formations of consciousness consist of elementary sensory representations, united through associations into more or less complex complexes. (Gartley, Ebbinghaus, W. Wundt). Understanding of knowledge as contemplation, the principle of sensationalism: “There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in sensation.” The final subject of thinking is subjective sensations, images of perception and ideas. Therefore, representatives of associative psychology did not consider it necessary to specifically study thinking. The concept was identified with the idea and was interpreted as an associatively connected set of features: judgment - as an association of ideas; inference - as an association of two judgments, serving as its premises, with a third, which is deduced from it.
The associative theory reduces the content of thought to the sensory elements of sensations, and the patterns of its flow to associative laws. Thinking comes down to the process of associating connections between traces of past and present sensory experience.
Criticism: Thinking has its own qualitatively specific content and its own qualitatively specific patterns of flow. The specific content of thinking is expressed in concepts; the concept cannot in any way be reduced to a simple set of associatively related sensations or ideas. Representatives of the associative theory were unable to solve the problem of thinking activity; creative abilities, in their opinion, existed a priori.
Würzburg school on thinking
Representatives: A. Binet, Külpe, Marbe The Würzburg school made the development of the psychology of thinking its main task; laid the foundation for the systematic study of thinking.
The main point: thinking has its own specific content, which cannot be reduced to the content of sensations and perceptions. But thinking has been too divorced from perception; they are not connected at all. As a result, the Würzburg school came to an incorrect understanding of the relationship between thinking and sensory contemplation. Statement on the subject orientation of thought (intention). Since (from idealism) thinking was externally opposed to the entire sensory content of reality, the focus of thinking on an object (intention) turned into a pure act (into mystical activity without any content).
Representatives of the Würzburg school emphasized the ordered, directed nature of thinking and identified the importance of the task in the thinking process. During its existence, the Würzburg school has undergone significant evolution. At the beginning there were statements about the ugly nature of thinking (O. Külpe, H. J. Watt, K. Bühler in their early works), then representatives of the Würzburg school identified and emphasized the role of visual components in the thinking process. Views on the relationship between thinking and speech have also changed. At first (in O. Külpe, for example), thinking was considered externally, being already ready-made, independent of speech. Then thinking and the formation of concepts (N. Akh) were transformed as a result of the introduction of a formally understood speech sign into the solution of a problem. This last position, where a meaningless sign is the ruler of thinking, was essentially just the reverse side of the same original position, separating thinking and speech.
Thinking from the perspective of Gestalt psychology
Representatives: Werheimert, Koehler, Koffka. Criticism of the Würzburg school.
The basis of thinking is the ability to form and transform structures in reality. Thinking takes place in vicious circle(sphere of consciousness). As a result, thinking comes down to the movement of thoughts in a closed structure of consciousness.
The initial situation in which the problem arises is, in its visual content, an unbalanced phenomenal field in which there are, as it were, unfilled spaces. As a result, tension is created in the problem situation, which causes the transition of this unstable visual situation to another. Through a successive series of such transitions, a transformation occurs, i.e., a change in the structure of the original visual content, which leads to the solution of the problem. The problem turns out to be solved simply as a result of the fact that in the end we directly see the content of the initial situation differently than at the beginning.
In contrast to the psychology of thinking of the Würzburg school, which separated thinking from sensory contemplation, Koffka thus tried to implement, on the basis of the principle of structure, the same reduction of thinking to visual content that associative psychology defended on the basis of the doctrine of associations. This attempt ignores the specifics of thinking.
37 Development of the problem of thinking within the framework of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Information theory of thinking.
Behaviorism about thinking as behavior
Behaviorism originated in America at the beginning of the 20th century. They discarded the concept of the psyche and consciousness, the subject is behavior. Against introspection, for observation. Sensation, perception, thinking and other concepts of mental processes or functions were considered from the point of view of behavioral experience, the main function being adaptation to the environment.
The problem of thinking in early behaviorism.
Watson: I identified thinking with behavior; this is not a cognitive process. He divided behavior into external (directly observable from the outside) and internal (thinking in the broad sense of the word, or mental D). Mental D is caused by external stimuli and mediates visible behavior. Mental D is not connected to the brain. Compared to directly observed behavior, mental activity, according to Watson, is distinguished only by its very great condensation and abbreviation. Thinking is not socially conditioned; the main function is to ensure the organism’s adaptation to the environment (thinking = a set of reactions caused by the environment).
Watson reduces the laws of thinking to the laws of skills formation. The body acquires a skill through trial and error, just like any other activity.
The problem of thinking in modern behaviorism.
Fundamentals of the theory of thinking - Clark Hull. He was the first (1930) to apply the general neo-behavioristic theory of behavior to the analysis of knowledge, the process of problem solving, and the formation of concepts. The problem of thinking is dealt with by Skinner, Tolman and other neo-behaviourists.
Thinking is a form of adaptation of the body to new conditions. These new conditions represent a problem situation, or a task situation, for the organism, therefore the process of adaptation to a problem situation is described by behaviorists as solving a problem.
Criticism: they do not consider thinking as a mental process of cognition of natural relationships between things, a process of reflecting those complex (cause-and-effect, functional, etc.) relationships between objects in which the essence of objects is revealed. Both early and late behaviorists: the thinking of humans and animals is no different. Only very recently have behaviorists sometimes begun to talk about certain qualitative features of human thinking. But they continue to reduce problem solving to a process of trial and error or selection of adaptive responses.
Psychoanalysis
Thinking is considered in psychoanalysis as a motivational process 3 Freud owns a work on the psychology of thinking "Wit and its relation to the unconscious." In it, "wit" is explained as a manifestation of creative thinking. It is based on unconscious primary motives. Wit arises and its results in bypassing the dissatisfaction of primary needs, i.e. creativity is the sublimated pleasure of these needs. Mental action can occur under the influence of an unconscious motive or its substitute - the desired motive - the desired motive.
Psychoanalysis partially touched upon the problem of the connection between thinking and motives. Questions about how motivation influences the organization and structure of mental activity have not been studied
Associated with psychoanalysis theory of autistic thinking (E Bleuler) Autism is explained as the dominance of inner life, withdrawal from the outside world; manifestations of autistic thinking are dreams, mythology, folk beliefs, schizophrenic thinking, etc. E Bleyleer in his concept shows the regulating influence of the motivational-emotional sphere on thinking.
Information theory of thinking. According to research, creative thinking reveals itself already during the formulation of a problem and has a unique course (G. Wertheimer, G. Woodworth, K. Duncker, O. Seltz, S. Kalmykova, G. Lindsay, A. Luk, Ya. Ponomarev) . Like the process of thinking in general, it goes through the following stages: creating an image that corresponds to the conditions of the task; operations of analysis, synthesis and, above all, generalization; finding the solution principle; getting the result. However, in this case, the content of each stage is particularly complex. In addition, this type of thinking is based on high intellectual activity And respect To creativity how to values.
Thinking- Higher cognitive and regulatory process. It is a form of a person’s creative reflection of reality, generating a result that does not exist in reality itself or the subject at a given moment in time. Human thinking (in its lower forms it is found in animals) can also be understood as a creative transformation of ideas and images existing in memory.
From the physiological side the thinking process is a complex analytical and synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex. The entire cortex takes part in the implementation of thinking processes. For the thinking process, those that matter most are complex temporary connections that form between the brain ends of the analyzers. The previously existing idea about the exact boundaries of the central sections of the analyzers in the cerebral cortex is refuted latest achievements physiological science: “The limits of the analyzers are much greater, and they are not so sharply demarcated from each other, but overlap each other, interlock with each other” (I. P. Pavlov). This “ special design The cortex facilitates the establishment of connections in the activities of a wide variety of analyzers. “The cerebral cortex must be considered as a grandiose mosaic of countless nerve points with a specific physiological role for each of them. At the same time, the bark is the most complex dynamic system, constantly striving for unification, to establish a single, common connection” (I. P. Pavlov). Since the activity of individual areas of the cortex is always determined by external stimuli, the nerve connections formed with the simultaneous stimulation of these areas of the cortex reflect the actual connections in things. These connections, naturally caused by external stimuli, constitute the physiological basis of the thinking process. “Thinking,” said I.P. Pavlov, “...represents nothing else but associations, first elementary, standing in connection with external objects, and then chains of associations. This means that every small, first association is the moment of the birth of a thought.” At first, these associations are of a generalized nature, reflecting real connections in their most general and undifferentiated form, and sometimes even incorrectly, based on random, insignificant characteristics. Only in the process of repeated stimulation does differentiation of temporary connections occur, they are refined, consolidated and become the physiological basis of more or less accurate and correct knowledge about the external world. These associations arise primarily under the influence of primary signal stimuli, causing corresponding sensations, perceptions and ideas about the environment external environment. Real interactions and interconnections of these stimuli determine the emergence of corresponding temporary neural connections of the first signaling system. Participate in the implementation of the thinking process neural processes in the speech centers of the cortex . Thinking is based not only on primary signal connections. It necessarily presupposes the activity of the second signaling system in its unbreakable connection with the first signaling system. The irritants here are no longer specific objects of the surrounding world and their properties, but words. Speech, being directly related to thinking, makes it possible to reflect in words the interrelation and interdependence of phenomena, because words are not just substitutes, signals of objects, but generalized stimuli. The second signaling system is specifically human. It arises in a person in connection with his labor activity and the need to communicate with other people caused by it, but nevertheless arises on the basis of the first signaling system and is in organic connection with it. In this interaction, the main role belongs to the second signaling system. Due to the generalized nature of secondary signal stimuli - words that make it possible to reflect objective connections in their general form, the second signaling system acquires leading importance in complex nervous processes, subordinating the activity of the first signaling system. The interaction of the first and second signaling systems in the processes of thinking consists in the fact that the second signaling system in this unity occupies a dominant position and directs the processes of the first signaling system. The word transforms primary signal nerve connections into generalized images of reality, which allows a person, in the processes of thinking, to break away from the specific features of perceived phenomena and think existing connections in their generalized form, in the form of concepts, and not in the form of perceptions and ideas.
Types and forms of thinking. Our knowledge of the surrounding reality begins with sensations and perception and moves on to thinking. The function of thinking is to expand the boundaries of knowledge by going beyond the limits of sensory perception. The task of thinking is to reveal relationships between objects, identify connections and separate them from random coincidences. Thinking operates with concepts and assumes the functions of generalization and planning. Thinking is the most generalized and indirect form of mental reflection, establishing connections and relationships between cognizable objects. These different levels of thinking are visual thinking in its elementary forms and abstract, theoretical thinking. With visual-figurative thinking, the transformation of the visual conditions of mental actions consists primarily in the translation of their perceptual content into the “language” of semantic features, into the language of meaning. Imaginative thinking is a form of a person’s creative reflection of reality, generating a result that does not exist in reality itself or in the subject at a given moment in time. Theoretical conceptual thinking is such thinking, using which a person, in the process of solving a problem, does not directly turn to the experimental study of reality, does not obtain the empirical facts necessary for thinking, and does not take practical actions aimed at actually transforming reality. Mental operations. Analysis is a mental operation of dividing a complex object into its constituent parts. Analysis - This is the selection of certain aspects, elements, properties, connections, relationships, etc. in an object. Synthesis is a mental operation that allows one to move from parts to the whole in a single analytical-synthetic process of thinking. Generalization is a mental operation consisting of combining many objects or phenomena according to some common feature. Abstraction- a mental operation based on abstracting from unimportant signs of objects, phenomena and highlighting the main, main thing in them. Abstraction- an abstract concept formed as a result of mental abstraction from unimportant aspects, properties of objects and relationships between them in order to identify essential features. Selection (abstraction) general properties different levels allows a person to establish generic relations in a certain variety of objects and phenomena, systematize them and thereby build a certain classification Categorization– the operation of assigning a single object, event, experience to a certain class, which can be verbal and nonverbal meanings, symbols, etc. – systematization of subordinate concepts of any field of knowledge or human activity, used to establish connections between these concepts or classes of objects. Specification- this is the movement of thought from the general to the specific. One of the tasks of theoretical thinking is to determine a way to derive particular manifestations of a system object from its general (essential) basis, from a certain initial relationship in the system.
Correlation of thinking and speech. Many modern scientists adhere to a compromise point of view, believing that although thinking and speech are inextricably linked, they represent relatively independent realities both in genesis and functioning. The main question that is now being discussed in connection with this problem is the question of the nature of the real connection between thinking and speech, their genetic roots and the transformations that they undergo in the process of their separate and joint development. L.S. Vygotsky made a significant contribution to solving this problem. The word, he wrote, relates to speech as well as to thinking. It is a living cell containing in simple form basic properties inherent in speech thinking in general. A word is not a label pasted as an individual name on a separate object. It always characterizes the object or phenomenon it denotes in a generalized way and, therefore, acts as an act of thinking. But the word is also a means of communication, therefore it is part of speech. Being devoid of meaning, the word no longer refers to either thought or speech; Having acquired its meaning, it immediately becomes an organic part of both. It is in the meaning of the word, says L.S. Vygotsky, that the knot of that unity, which is called speech thinking, is tied. However, thinking and speech have different genetic roots. Initially they performed different functions and developed separately. The original function of speech was the communicative function. Speech itself as a means of communication arose due to the need to separate and coordinate the actions of people in the process of joint work. At the same time, in verbal communication, the content conveyed by speech belongs to a certain class of phenomena and, therefore, already presupposes their generalized reflection, i.e. fact of thinking. At the same time, such, for example, a method of communication as a pointing gesture does not carry any generalization in itself and therefore does not relate to thought. In turn, there are types of thinking that are not associated with speech, for example, visual-effective, or practical, thinking in animals. In small children and in higher animals, unique means of communication are found that are not associated with thinking. These are expressive movements, gestures, facial expressions that reflect internal states a living being, but not a sign or a generalization. In the phylogenesis of thinking and speech, a pre-speech phase in the development of intelligence and a pre-intellectual phase in the development of speech clearly emerges. L.S. Vygotsky believed that at the age of approximately 2 years, i.e. in what J. Piaget designated as the beginning of the stage of pre-operational thinking following sensorimotor intelligence, a critical stage begins in the relationship between thinking and speech crucial moment: speech begins to become intellectualized, and thinking becomes verbal. Signs of the onset of this turning point in the development of both functions are the child’s rapid and active expansion of his vocabulary(he begins to often ask adults the question: what is this called?) and an equally rapid, spasmodic increase in communicative vocabulary. The child, as it were, discovers for the first time the symbolic function of speech and discovers an understanding that behind the word as a means of communication there actually lies a generalization, and uses it both for communication and for solving problems. He begins to call different objects with the same word, and this is direct evidence that the child is mastering concepts. When solving any intellectual problems, he begins to reason out loud, and this, in turn, is a sign that he is using speech as a means of thinking, and not just communication. The meaning of the word as such becomes practically accessible to the child.
PHYSIOLOGICAL BASES OF THINKING
Work on the study of the neurophysiological mechanisms of mental activity also made a significant contribution to the doctrine of thinking. So we move on to the next question “ Physiological basis thinking."
For the first time, the natural scientific substantiation of the materialistic theory of the psyche as a reflective process was given by I.M. Sechenov, expressing “the idea of the possibility of subsuming all the most important forms of mental activity under the type of reflex processes.” Thinking according to Sechenov is the result of reflex brain processes that compare objects with each other in some respect.
Central to the human theory of thinking is the view of the role of words in the reflex process. The word is a “means of mental communication” and a condition for the development of thinking. “When a person’s thought moves from a sensitive area to an extra-sensitive one, the role of a system of conventional signs, which has developed in parallel and adaptively to thinking, becomes a necessity. Without it, elements of extrasensory thinking, devoid of image and form, would not have the opportunity to be recorded in consciousness, therefore speech constitutes the main condition for thinking with extrasensory objects.”
How did Sechenov understand the reflexive process of thought?
The beginning of a thought, the first link of the reflex process, can be any sensory stimulation, including audible speech or “writing” (in Sechenov’s terminology).
The central link in the reflex process is, according to Sechenov’s theory, the analetic-synthetic activity of the brain. Thought, according to Sechenov, is a “continued analysis”, “continued synthesis”, “continued generalization” of external influences. This means that analysis and synthesis continue not over “sensible products”, but over “abstracts”.
A spoken or written thought represents the final, third link of brain reflexes.
So, according to Sechenov, thinking is a speech reflex process. This idea is confirmed by the research of I.P. Pavlov and his school. I.P. Pavlov introduced the concept of the 2nd signaling system and characterized it as the highest physiological apparatus control of speech, verbal thinking and practical activities mediated by this thinking. According to Pavloy, the second signaling system provides a qualitative difference between human thinking and animal thinking. “Irritation going to the cortex from the speech organs represents a distraction from reality and allows for generalization, which specifically constitutes human higher thinking.”
Open I.P. are also important for understanding the physiological basis of thinking. Pavlov’s mechanisms of orientation-exploratory activity, namely the conditioned orientation (exploration) reflex, and the conditioned reflex to the relationship between stimuli. According to Pavlov, the exploratory reflex in humans goes extremely far, finally manifesting itself in the form of that curiosity that creates science, which gives and promises us the highest, limitless orientation in the world around us.
Further neurophysiological studies provided new data on the mechanisms of brain regulation of complex activities. In the 30s P.K. Anokhin and N.A. Bernstein introduced the concept of feedback as fundamental to understanding the mechanism of self-regulation of animal and human activity. In modern neurophysiology, the term “feedback” refers to a mechanism for regulating activity by signaling the effects carried out by the working organs of current reactions, thanks to which their correction occurs. The development of the problem of regulation through feedback is important from the point of view of the development of scientific ideas about the mechanisms of mental activity, because it also allows us to understand the physiological necessity of the subject’s activity in the process of cognition.
Let's briefly summarize:
- Thinking is the result of reflex brain processes (I.M. Sechenov)
- Important for understanding the physiological basis of thinking are:
- Conditioned orienting reflex;
- Conditioned reflex on the relationship between stimuli;
- Second signaling system (I.P. Pavlov);
- The principle of feedback (P.K. Anokhin, N.L. Bernstein).
Now let's move on to the neural mechanisms of mental activity and consider the theory of A.N. Luke. The physiological basis of human thinking, according to A.N. Luke, is the spatial and temporal summation of impulses and the associated mosaic of excitation and inhibition.
However, processing and summation of impulses is not yet thinking. It is necessary to form spatial and temporal configurations of pulses in which the structural invariant is highlighted and noise is eliminated. This invariant underlies images. Thinking begins from this level of interaction.
The physiological basis of the image is a neural model, or a set of nerve cells and their synoptic connections, forming a group that is relatively stable over time.
Any event occurring in the external environment and perceived by a person is modeled in the cortex of his brain in the form of a certain structure. In this case, it is assumed that there is a one-to-one correspondence between real objects and their models in nervous system, i.e. code. This is one of the conditions for the objectivity of knowledge. However, a person recognizes objects, even if he sees them from an unusual angle, upside down, etc. The neural “patterns” of excitation that arise in this case are not identical, i.e. does not match all of its elements.
But a structural invariant can be identified in them, which makes it possible to recognize an object by a probabilistic, rather than identical, coincidence of excited neurons.
Neural model code designation of an object or event. The structure of the model is similar to the structure of the reflected object. Structure refers to the elements that make up an object, the ways in which these elements enter into relationships - static or dynamic.
For example, a letter and its phonetic sound are identical in information terms, therefore they have structural similarities. It is in this sense that we can talk about the similarity of the structure of the neural model with the structure of the reflected object. At the level individual elements A one-to-one correspondence is quite sufficient. But at the model level there is certainly a structural similarity, or isomorphism between the model and the object.
Another example of structural similarity is the water molecule and its formula H 2 O.
A pattern in the brain is essentially information that is processed in a certain way. Exactly identical nerve impulses, grouped in time and space, form models of ever-increasing complexity, reflecting reality more and more fully, approaching it, but never exhausting it.
The creation of a neural model can be considered a correlate of what is commonly called representation formation. The movement of excitation and inhibition, their transition from one model to another is the material basis of the thinking process. For a thought to arise, at least two patterns must be activated. The comparison of these models is the real content of thought.
Thinkingis the process of reflecting in the human mind connections and relationships between objects or phenomena of reality.
In the process of thinking, a person reflects the objective world differently than in the processes of perception and imagination. In perceptions and ideas, external phenomena are reflected in the way they affect the senses - in colors, shapes, movement of objects, etc. When a person thinks about any objects or phenomena, he does not reflect in his consciousness these external features, but the very essence of objects, their mutual connections and relationships.
From the physiological side, the thinking process is a complex analytical and synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex. The entire cortex takes part in the implementation of thinking processes.
For the thinking process, those that matter most are complex temporary connections that form between the brain ends of the analyzers.
The previously existing idea about the exact boundaries of the central sections of the analyzers in the cerebral cortex is refuted by the latest achievements of physiological science: “The limits of the analyzers are much greater, and they are not so sharply demarcated from each other, but overlap each other, interlock with each other” (I.P. Pavlov).This “special design” of the cortex facilitates the establishment of connections in the activities of a wide variety of analyzers. “The cerebral cortex must be considered as a grandiose mosaic of countless nerve points with a specific physiological role for each of them. At the same time, the cortex is a highly complex dynamic system, constantly striving for unification, to establish a single, common connection” (I.P. Pavlov).
Since the activity of individual areas of the cortex is always determined by external stimuli, the nerve connections formed with the simultaneous stimulation of these areas of the cortex reflect the actual connections in things. These connections, naturally caused by external stimuli, constitute the physiological basis of the thinking process. “Thinking,” said I.P. Pavlov, “...represents nothing else but associations, first elementary, standing in connection with external objects, and then chains of associations. This means that every small, first association is the moment of the birth of a thought.”
At first, these associations are of a generalized nature, reflecting real connections in their most general and undifferentiated form, and sometimes even incorrectly, based on random, insignificant characteristics. Only in the process of repeated stimulation does differentiation of temporary connections occur, they are refined, consolidated and become the physiological basis of more or less accurate and correct knowledge about the external world.
These associations arise primarily under the influence of primary signal stimuli, causing corresponding sensations, perceptions and ideas about the surrounding external environment. Real interactions and interconnections of these stimuli determine the emergence of corresponding temporary neural connections of the first signaling system.
Participate in the implementation of the thinking process neural processes in the speech centers of the cortex . Thinking is based not only on primary signal connections. It necessarily presupposes the activity of the second signaling system in its inextricable connection with the first signaling system. The irritants here are no longer specific objects of the surrounding world and their properties, but words. Speech, being directly related to thinking, makes it possible to reflect in words the interrelation and interdependence of phenomena, because words are not just substitutes, signals of objects, but generalized stimuli.
The second signaling system is specifically human. It arises in a person in connection with his work activity and the resulting need to communicate with other people, but it nevertheless arises on the basis of the first signaling system and is in organic connection with it. In this interaction, the main role belongs to the second signaling system.
Due to the generalized nature of secondary signal stimuli - words that make it possible to reflect objective connections in their general form, the second signaling system acquires leading importance in complex nervous processes, subordinating the activity of the first signaling system. The interaction of the first and second signaling systems in the processes of thinking consists in the fact that the second signaling system in this unity occupies a dominant position and directs the processes of the first signaling system.
The word transforms the first-signal nerve connections into generalized images of reality, which allows a person, in the processes of thinking, to break away from the specific features of perceived phenomena and think of existing connections in their generalized form, in the form of concepts, and not in the form of perceptions and ideas.
Types of thinking
The variety of types of mental tasks determines the variety of not only mechanisms, methods, but also types of thinking. In psychology, it is customary to distinguish between types of thinking according to content: visual-effective, visual-figurative and abstract thinking; by the nature of the tasks: practical and theoretical thinking; according to the degree of novelty and originality: reproductive and creative (productive) thinking.
Visual-effective thinking lies in the fact that problem solving is carried out by actually transforming the situation and performing a motor act. So, in early age children show the ability to analyze and synthesize when they perceive objects at a certain moment and have the ability to operate with them.
Visual-figurative thinking is based on images of ideas, transformation of the situation into a plan of images. Characteristic of poets, artists, architects, perfumers, fashion designers. The significance of this thinking lies in the fact that with its help the variety of characteristics of an object is more fully reproduced, and unusual combinations of objects and their properties are established. In its simplest form, this thinking occurs in preschool age, when children think in images. By encouraging the creation of images based on what they read, the perception of objects, and the schematic and symbolic representation of objects of knowledge, the teacher develops imaginative thinking in students.
Feature abstract (verbal-logical) thinking is that it occurs based on a concept, a judgment, without using empirical data. R. Descartes expressed the following thought: “I think, therefore I exist.” With these words, the scientist emphasizes the leading role of thinking, and specifically verbal-logical thinking, in mental activity.
Visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking are considered as stages in the development of thinking in phylogenesis and ontogenesis.
Theoretical thinking consists of knowing the laws and rules. It reflects what is essential in phenomena, objects, and connections between them at the level of patterns and trends. The products of theoretical thinking are, for example, the discovery Periodic table Mendeleev, mathematical (philosophical) laws. B. M. Teplov wrote about people theoretical type thinking, which they carry out an excellent “intellectual economy” by “reducing facts to laws, and laws to theories.”
Theoretical thinking is sometimes compared with empirical thinking. They differ in the nature of their generalizations. Thus, in theoretical thinking, there is a generalization of abstract concepts, and in empirical thinking, there is a generalization of sensory data, identified through comparison.
The main task practical thinking is a physical transformation of reality. It can sometimes be more difficult than the theoretical one, because it often unfolds under extreme circumstances and in the absence of conditions for testing the hypothesis.
Some scientists, based on three characteristics - the time of the process, structure (a clear division into stages) and the level of flow (awareness or ignorance) - distinguish intuitive and analytical thinking.
Analytical thinking- this type of thinking, unfolded in time, has clearly defined stages, sufficiently conscious of the subject.
Intuitive Thinking, on the contrary, is collapsed in time, there is no division into stages, it was presented in consciousness.
In psychology there is also a distinction realistic thinking, directed towards the outside world and regulated by logical laws, as well as autistic thinking related to implementation own desires, intentions. For children preschool age characteristic self-centered thinking, its characteristic feature is the inability to put oneself in the position of others.
3. I. Kalmykova highlights productive (creative) and reproductive thinking according to the degree of novelty of the product that the subject of knowledge receives. The researcher believes that thinking as a process of generalized and indirect cognition of reality is always productive, i.e. aimed at obtaining new knowledge. However, in it, productive and reproductive components are intertwined in dialectical unity.
Reproductive thinking is a type of thinking that provides a solution to a problem, based on the reproduction of already known to man ways. The new task is correlated with an already known solution scheme. Despite this, reproductive thinking always requires the identification of a certain level of independence.
Productive thinking fully reveals a person’s intellectual abilities and creative potential. Creative possibilities are expressed in the rapid pace of assimilation of knowledge, in the breadth of their transfer to new conditions, in independent operation of them.
Domestic and foreign psychologists (G. S. Kostyuk, J. Guilford) came to the conclusion that creative thinking is a set of those features of the psyche that provide productive transformations in the activities of the individual.
Creative thinking is dominated by four features, in particular the originality of the solution to the problem, semantic flexibility, which allows you to see the object from a new angle, figurative adaptive flexibility, which makes it possible to change the object with the development of the need for its cognition, semantically spontaneous production flexibility different ideas regarding uncertain situations.
Every person, regardless of ethnicity, has a creative side. So, analyzing the origins national character Ukrainians, M.I. Piren notes that Ukrainian emotionality, sensitivity, lyricism, which are manifested in songs, folk rituals, humor, and customs, are the basis of creativity. The positive aspects of Ukrainian emotionality were embodied in the spiritual creativity of the best representatives of the nation: G. Skovoroda, N. Gogol, P. Yurkevich, P. Kulish, T. Shevchenko.