Lecture
Sensation and perception give us knowledge of the individual — individual objects and phenomena of the real world. But such information cannot be considered sufficient. In order for a person to live and work normally, he needs to foresee the consequences of certain phenomena, events or his actions. Knowledge of the individual is not a sufficient basis for foresight. For example, what will happen if you bring a lit match to a sheet of paper? Of course, it will catch fire. But why do we know about this? Most likely, because they had their own experience and, based on the information we have, they made a logical conclusion. However, in order to make this conclusion, we had to compare the properties of this sheet of paper with another paper, identify the common features that characterize them, and only then draw a conclusion about what will happen to the paper if
she touches fire. Consequently, in order to foresee, it is necessary to generalize the single objects and facts and, based on these generalizations, draw a conclusion regarding other single objects and facts of the same kind.
This multistep transition - from the single to the general and from the general again to the single - is carried out thanks to a special mental process - thinking. Thinking is the highest cognitive mental process. The essence of this process lies in the generation of new knowledge based on the creative reflection and transformation of reality by man.
Thinking is one of the most important abilities of a person. It satisfies his needs for knowledge about the world, about other people, about himself, in value orientations and communication with others, in transferring experience from one generation to another. Thanks to the thought process, it is possible to produce new knowledge, forecasting and making decisions, analyzing and resolving problem situations, searching for new ways of existence and development of the person himself.
Thinking relates the data of sensations and perceptions - compares, compares, distinguishes, reveals relationships, and through the relationship between directly sensory given properties of things and phenomena reveals new, directly sensually not given data their abstract properties; identifying relationships and realizing the reality in these relationships. Thinking is the highest form of cognitive activity.
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The essence of thinking is the establishment of links and relationships between cognizable objects and phenomena of objective reality. |
Moreover, in thinking, not only external, perceived properties of objects, but also internal, essential connections and relationships are reflected. And this is one of the main features that distinguish thinking from other cognitive processes (mediation ). Those. thinking is mediated in nature - what is immediately given in perception is cognized. Another feature of thinking is generalization . Those. thinking is symbolic and expressed in words. The material basis of thinking is speech .
Thinking is a mental process of generalized and mediated reflection of reality with the direct participation of speech.
Thinking as a special mental process has a number of specific characteristics and signs (Fig. 12.1). The first such sign is a generalized reflection of reality, since thinking is a reflection of the general in objects and phenomena of the real world and the application of generalizations to single objects and phenomena. We had the opportunity to see this with the paper example.
The second, no less important, sign of thinking is indirect knowledge of objective reality. The essence of mediated cognition is that we are able to make judgments about the properties or characteristics of objects and phenomena without direct contact with them, but by analyzing indirect information. For example, in order to find out what the weather is like today, you can go outside. However, most often we act differently. If we want to know whether it is cold outside or warm, we use an outdoor thermometer or listen to a weather report and, based on information about the temperature characteristics of the external environment, we conclude that it is warm outside or cold.
Fig.12.1. General characteristics of thinking as a mental process
It should be noted that mediated thinking does not distort the reality surrounding us, but, on the contrary, allows us to know it more deeply, more truly and more fully. Thus, a generalization makes it possible to identify not only the essential properties of the things around us, but also the main regular connections of objects and phenomena. In addition, the mediated nature of thinking gives us the opportunity not only to deepen the information we have, but also to expand it, since the area of thinking is wider than the area of what we perceive. For example, relying on sensory perception, but going beyond its limits, in the process of thinking, we are able to know the past of the Earth, the development of the plant and animal world. Thanks to thinking, we are able to predict even the future of the Earth with a certain degree of reliability. Thus, in the process of thinking, we will come to know that which is generally inaccessible to perception and representation.
The next most important characteristic feature of thinking is that thinking is always associated with the solution of a particular task that arose in the process of cognition or in practical activity. The process of thinking begins to manifest itself most clearly only when a problematic situation arises and needs to be resolved. Thinking always begins with a question, the answer to which is the goal of thinking. And the answer to this question is not immediately, but with the help of certain mental operations, in the process of which the modification and transformation of the available information takes place.
Considering the problem of thinking, A. A. Smirnov warns about the need to distinguish between thinking and the associative flow of intellectual processes. The fact is that in mental activity we make extensive use of associations, since they provide very substantial assistance in solving mental problems. For example, we often recall cases from past experience that are similar to the one we have encountered now. In this case, the resulting associations are used to solve our mental problem. They do not lead us away from her, but bring us closer to the answer. Such associations are intertwined into a common chain, and each of the associations serves as a stepping stone for the next association or following its conclusion. Consequently, the associations that we engage in the process of thinking are controlled by our will, and their reproduction is carried out with a specific goal.
With the associative flow of intellectual processes, the situation is different. The main difference is that in this case we do not set ourselves any goal, since we do not solve any problem. In this case, one process is replaced by another only because it is associated with it associatively. Depending on what associations are carried out, thoughts and ideas can go in various directions, including those that lead away from the starting point. A striking example confirming this, is a study conducted by P. P. Blonsky.
The essence of the Blonsky experiment was that the person was offered to describe everything that happens in his mind when he hears the word spoken by the experimenter. In this case, the subject lay on the sofa in a relaxed state. The word "wand" was said. The response of the subject was: “Conductor's wand. Familiar singing teacher. Composer. Composer Glinka. I saw his portrait in a hat. Roman like Nero. Roman palace goes roman in
white clothes. The garden, the mass of roses, the alley, there is a mass of warriors. A huge tree, on it a pattern of Christmas sticks. White birds fly from there. It is shooting. These are bullets. I see how they fly, how they, or rather their footprint, are white, glisten. They turn into animal paws with white claws. The latter creep, blur. This is the road. The road turns into a waterfall in the Caucasus ... ”
The associative flow of intellectual processes is very often observed in cases where a person is tired and wants to rest. You, probably, noticed that sometimes, before falling asleep, various thoughts fly through your head, replacing one after another. These thoughts are certain associations. However, there are cases when the associative flow of intellectual processes can be observed in the normal state of a person. For example, starting to talk about one thing, under the influence of the associations that have arisen, we begin to talk about something else and gradually move away from the topic of conversation altogether.
An exceptionally important feature of thinking is an inextricable link with speech. The close connection between thinking and speech finds its expression primarily in the fact that thoughts are always clothed in speech form, even in cases where speech does not have a sound form, for example, in the case of deaf-and-dumb people. We always think in words, that is, we cannot think without uttering words. Thus, special devices for registering muscle contractions mark the presence of movements of the vocal apparatus that are invisible to the person during the thought process of a person's thinking process.
It should be noted that speech is a tool of thinking. So, adults and children. Solve problems much better if they formulate them out loud. And vice versa, when the language of the schoolchildren was fixed in the experiment (clamped with their teeth), the quality and number of solved problems deteriorated. Of course, in this case, thoughts are still clothed in verbal form, and the difficulty in solving problems is due to the fact that when fixing the language, difficulties arise in the movements of the speech apparatus. It can be said that the thinking process is carried out when the thought is expressed in words.
Expressing thoughts with words is a rather complex process involving several stages. For example, a person wants to express his thought in an expanded speech (rorm. To do this, he must have the appropriate motive of a statement, for example, the need to solve a problem. But the formation of a motive - the driving force of the process - is only the first, main stage. At the second stage, thought and the general scheme of the content, which should later be embodied in the statement.This stage of the preparation of the statement of thought, as L.Vygotsky believed, is of particular importance.On it is re-encoding (recoding) closures weak in expanded speech and the creation of a generative (generative) scheme of expanded speech utterance. Under the generative scheme of speech utterance means a mechanism called internal speech in psychology . It is internal speech that provides a transitional stage between the plan (or “thought”) and the expanded external speech through the transcoding mechanism of general meaning in speech utterance. Inner speech generates (generates) a detailed speech utterance that includes the original intent in the system of grammatical codes of the language. From this point of view, inner speech appears as a preparatory stage,
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It is interesting What is the physiological basis of thinking ? Modern psychologists and physiologists are interested in the question of what is the basis of various types of thinking, and first of all, verbal and figurative thinking. It can be assumed that the basis of these types of thinking are, respectively, the word and the image (mainly a visual image). If this is so, then with a certain degree of confidence it can be assumed that their physiological bases are interconnected. These assumptions have been partially confirmed by modern research. Much data was obtained in studies of patients with damaged brain. These studies show that all violations of the patient's visual perception, as a rule, are accompanied by similar disorders of visual images. Particularly striking examples are patients with lesions of the parietal lobe of the right hemisphere, who as a result develops visual disregard for the left side of the visual field. Although not blind, these patients ignore everything that is on the left side of their visual field. The male patient may, for example, not shave the left side of the face. Italian neuropsychologist E. L. Bizyak asked his patients with visual disregard to imagine a familiar square in their hometown (Milan), what it looks like when facing the church. Most of the objects, called patients, were to the right of them, and only a few to the left. When they were asked to imagine this scene from the opposite point, as if they were standing in front of the church and looking at the square, the patients ignored the objects they had previously called (now these objects were on the left side of the visual field). Thus, imaginative thinking is mediated by the same brain structures as perception. |
preceding the expression of thought; it is directed not at the listener, but at itself, at the translation into the speech plan of that scheme, which was previously only the general content of the plan.
The generating role of inner speech, which leads to the revival of previously learned grammatical structures of expanded speech, provides the final stage in the emergence of a developed external speech expression of thought.
Thus, the thought takes on a final form only after the intention is encoded into speech characters. The fact that thought is encoded in speech in order to acquire a generally accessible form, L. S. Vygotsky, expressed in the formula, “thought is accomplished in a word.” Therefore, it really is not only a means of communication, but also an instrument of thinking.
It should be borne in mind that, despite the close interaction of thinking and speech, these two phenomena are not the same thing. To think is not to say out loud or to yourself. Evidence of this can be the possibility of expressing the same thought in different words, as well as the fact that we do not always find the right words to express our thoughts. In spite of the fact that the thought that arose in us is clear to us, often we cannot find a suitable verbal form to express it.
Like any mental process, thinking is a function of the brain. The physiological basis of thinking are brain processes of a higher level than those that serve as the basis for more elementary mental processes, such as sensation. However, at present there is no consensus on the significance and order of interaction of all physiological structures that ensure the process of thinking. It is indisputable that the frontal lobes of the brain play a significant role in mental activity as one of the options
purposeful activity. In addition, there is no doubt about the significance of those areas of the cerebral cortex that provide the gnostic (cognitive) functions of thinking. There is no doubt that the speech centers of the cerebral cortex are also involved in ensuring the thinking process.
The complexity of the study of the physiological bases of thinking is explained by the fact that in practice thinking as a separate mental process does not exist. Thinking is present in all other cognitive mental processes, including perception, attention, imagination, memory, speech. All the higher forms of these processes to a certain extent, depending on the level of their development, are associated with thinking. Thinking is a special kind of activity that has its own structure and types (Fig. 12.2).
Most often, thinking is divided into theoretical and practical. At the same time, in theoretical thinking they distinguish conceptual and figurative thinking, and in practical visual-figurative and visual-effective.
Conceptual thinking is thinking that uses certain concepts. At the same time, solving certain mental problems, we do not turn to search using special methods of any new information, but use ready-made knowledge gained by other people and expressed in the form of concepts, judgments of conclusions.
Image thinking is a type of thinking process that uses images. These images are extracted directly from memory or recreated by imagination. In the course of solving mental problems, the corresponding images
Fig. 12.2. The main types of thinking
mentally transformed so that as a result of manipulating them we can find a solution to the problem of interest to us. Most often, this kind of thinking prevails in people whose activities are associated with any type of creativity.
It should be noted that conceptual and figurative thinking, being varieties of theoretical thinking, are in practice in constant interaction. They complement each other, revealing to us the various aspects of being. Conceptual thinking gives the most accurate and generalized reflection of reality, but this reflection is abstract. In turn, imaginative thinking allows you to get a specific subjective reflection of the reality around us . Thus, conceptual and imaginative thinking complement each other and provide a deep and diverse reflection of reality.
Visual imaginative thinking is a type of thinking process that is carried out directly in the perception of the surrounding reality and without it cannot be carried out. Thinking visually-figuratively, we are attached to reality, and the necessary images are presented in short-term and operational memory. This form of thinking is dominant in children of preschool and primary school age.
Visual-effective thinking is a special kind of thinking, the essence of which lies in the practical transformational activity carried out with real objects. This type of thinking is widely represented in people engaged in industrial labor, the result of which is the creation of a material product.
It should be noted that all these types of thinking can be considered as levels of its development. Theoretical thinking is considered more perfect than practical, and conceptual is a higher level of development than figurative.
The concept is a reflection of the general and essential properties of objects or phenomena. The concepts are based on our knowledge of these objects or phenomena. It is customary to distinguish between common and isolated concepts.
General concepts are those that encompass an entire class of homogeneous objects or phenomena bearing the same name. For example, the concepts of "chair", "building", "disease", "man", etc. In general terms, signs are characteristic of all subjects, which are combined by the corresponding concept.
Single are the concepts denoting any one subject. For example, "Yenisei", "Venus", "Saratov", etc. Single concepts are a collection of knowledge about any one subject, but at the same time they reflect properties that may be covered by another, more general concept. For example, the concept of "Yenisei" includes the fact that it is a river that flows through the territory of Russia.
It should be noted that any general concepts arise only on the basis of single objects and phenomena. Therefore, the formation of the concept occurs not only through the clarification of any common properties and characteristics of a group of objects, but primarily through the acquisition of knowledge about the properties and characteristics of individual objects. The logical way of forming concepts is a movement from the particular to the general, that is, through a generalization.
The assimilation of concepts is a rather complicated process that has several stages. At the first stages of the formation of the concept, not all essential features are perceived by us as essential (this is especially characteristic of children). Moreover, that which is an essential feature may not be recognized by us at all, but that which is insignificant is perceived by us as essential. Today we have every reason to believe that practice is the basis for the formation of concepts. Very often, when we lack practical experience, some of our concepts have a distorted look. They may be unreasonably narrowed or extended. In the first case, the concept formed by our consciousness does not include what should include, and in the second case, on the contrary, it combines a number of signs that are not at all characteristic of the subject reflected in the concept. For example, some elementary school students do not include insects as animals. At the same time, the concept of "Christmas tree" is often applied by children to all coniferous trees.
Probably, it is possible to single out not only the stages of the formation of concepts, but also certain mechanisms of this process. We will not be mistaken if we say that some concepts are formed in our country in the first year of life, and we cannot reveal the patterns of their formation, because the knowledge we acquire in the first years of life falls into the category of unconscious. These concepts include the concepts of “time and“ space, ”although, according to a number of American authors, these concepts should be attributed to innate ones. But there are not many such concepts. Most of the concepts we use are acquired by us in the process of our development.
The concept can be learned in two ways: either we are specially taught something based on which a concept is formed, or in the process of activity we independently form a concept based on our own experience. What kind of learning will take place depends on what a person learns. Special training serves as a means of learning the "cores of concepts" (general concepts), whereas in personal experience we acquire "prototypes" (individual concepts). For example, if you tell a child that a wolf is an evil and dangerous predator (the core of the concept), then from your experience by visiting a zoo, a child can learn that wolves are helpless, *** fucking and not at all dangerous animals (prototype ).
Kernels and prototypes of concepts are closely interrelated. Their ratio determines the adequacy of our ideas about a phenomenon or subject. Moreover, the adequacy of these ideas depends on how accurately the essence of a phenomenon or object, i.e., its core, is understood. Our personal ideas are always connected with some kind of context, therefore, in order to understand what one has to face in life, one needs considerable practical experience. Parents, as a rule, try to prevent the mistakes of children, so they always strive to convey to the core of concepts.
However, the assimilation of the nuclei of concepts by children has its own dynamics. As shown by experimental studies, only by the age of 10 did children show a shift from the prototype to the nucleus as the final criterion in the decisions about the concept.
We have already noted that the assimilation of concepts follows the path of generalization. But what are the mechanisms for mastering concepts? American psychologists have identified several ways of learning concepts through practical experience. The simplest way they call instance strategy. You can illustrate it on how the child learns the concept of "furniture." When a child meets a well-known example, or an instance — say, a table — he keeps his image in memory. Later, when a child has to decide whether or not a new element - say, another table - is an example of furniture, he compares this new object with the stored images of furniture, including the image of the table. This strategy is widely used by children, and it works better with typical examples than with atypical ones. So, if the concept of a small child about furniture consisted only of the most typical examples (say, a table and a chair), he would be able to correctly classify other examples that look like familiar instances, such as a table or sofa, but not those that differ from acquaintances, such as a bookshelf. The strategy of the specimen is preserved in adults. It is often used to acquire new concepts.
As he grows older, a person begins to use a different strategy — hypothesis testing. He studies well-known examples of the concept, looks for signs that are relatively common to them (for example, many pieces of furniture are located in living spaces), and hypothesizes that it is these common signs that characterize this concept. He then analyzes new objects, looking for these critical features, and retains the hypothesis put forward if it leads to the correct categorization of a new object, or replaces it if it is not confirmed. This strategy is thus based on abstractions.
Исследование физиологических основ мышления позволило установить, что эти две стратегии приобретения понятий — стратегия экземпляра и стратегия проверки гипотезы — реализуются различными участками мозга. Подтверждение этому получено при обучении взрослых пациентов с повреждениями мозга различным понятиям. Использование стратегии экземпляра основывается на способности научающегося к воспроизведению известных ему примеров этого понятия; так, решая, является ли новый объект примером мебели, необходимо воспроизвести примеры столов и стульев. В этом процессе задействована долговременная память. Такое воспроизведение зависит от мозговых структур, находящихся в медиальных отделах височной доли, в частности гиппокампа.
В ходе исследований было также установлено, что стратегия проверки гипотезы опосредуется структурами лобных долей больших полушарий. Подтверждение этому получено в исследованиях, где нормальные испытуемые и пациенты с повреждением лобных долей сравнивались по выполнению задачи приобретения понятий, которая, как было известно, требует стратегии проверки гипотезы. В каждой пробе предъявлялась карточка, содержащая от одной до трех цветных геометрических фигур (например, два красных квадрата). Эти карточки различались количеством фигур (1,2 или 3), типом фигур (круги, квадраты и треугольники) и их цветом (красный, зеленый, синий).
The task of the subject was to determine which of the three signs — quantity, shape, or color — was essential to the concept, and then sort the cards into three piles according to this sign. In addition, after the correct selection of a certain number of cards by the subjects, the experimenter changed the essential characteristic, and the subjects had to look for this characteristic again. For example, after the subject learned that he was dealing with the concept of “color,” and correctly sorted the cards into small groups of red, green, and blue colors, the defining attribute could be changed from color to form, and now the subject had to sort these cards in piles according to circles, squares and triangles. Patients with lesions of the frontal cortex coped with this task noticeably worse than normal subjects. Patients could learn the initial essential feature (in the previous example, color) as easily as normal subjects, but it was extremely difficult for them to switch to a new feature when the experimenter changed the essential feature. Even when the experimenter repeatedly told them that their new sorting was incorrect, patients continued to sort the cards according to an obsolete attribute.
In addition to the mechanisms for the formation of concepts, there are factors that contribute to or hinder the assimilation of concepts. There are several factors and conditions that contribute to the successful assimilation of concepts. First, the variation of the signs of the object, the concept of which we are trying to assimilate. The greater the number of signs of the subject we will meet in practical experience, the more complete the concept will be formed on this subject. Secondly, the use of clarity in the assimilation of concepts allows you to create images that give a clear knowledge of the characteristics of the object, its qualities and properties.
However, mastering a concept means not only being able to name its signs, even if it is very numerous, but also to be able to apply the concept in practice, that is, to be able to operate with them. As a rule, our difficulties with the practical application of concepts are connected with new, unusual conditions in which it is necessary to operate with the concept that we have. Moreover, the application of the concept in practice in various conditions is not only an indicator of the degree of its assimilation, but also a means of achieving the best assimilation of this concept.
One of the most important moments in the assimilation of the concept is its awareness. Sometimes, using the concept, we are not fully aware of its meaning. Therefore, the awareness of the concept can be considered as the highest step in the formation of concepts, as a link connecting the concept and understanding.
In domestic psychology in the 40-50s. XX century. understanding was defined as a reflection of relationships, relationships of objects or phenomena of the real world. In modern science, understanding is interpreted as the ability to comprehend the meaning and significance of something, and the above definition fully reflects the essence of judgment. Of course, in modern psychology, the concepts of “judgment” and “understanding” are not completely identical, but they are closely related to each other. If understanding is an ability, then judgment is the result of that ability. Judgment as a form of thinking is based on the subject's understanding of the variety of connections of a particular object or phenomenon with other objects or phenomena.
Explaining the meaning and essence of understanding, A. Smirnov gives the following example: “We do not understand how the motor of a car works, how it works, how a car moves with it. To understand this, we learn what parts it consists of, how they are connected with each other, how they interact with each other, what is their connection with car parts. Understanding the design of the engine and its actions is achieved, therefore, by understanding the connection of its individual parts, both among themselves and with the fact that they are moving in the car. " In turn, complementing the statement of A. A. Smirnov, it can be argued that when we are aware of the reasons for the movement of a car, we will be able to make judgments about a particular car.
As a rule, the relationships that we reflect in our judgment are very diverse. This is determined by the fact that any object of objective reality is in a wide variety of relationships with other objects and phenomena. The richness of the connections of objects is not always reflected in our judgment, therefore the depth of understanding of various objects and phenomena may vary. At the first stage of understanding, we can only identify the object or phenomenon, referring them to some very general category. For example, a small child of all familiar and unfamiliar men and women calls the word "uncle" or "aunt," that is, does not distinguish the sex of a person, but refers the perceived person to some category common to all people.
Another, higher level of understanding is achieved when the general category of objects and phenomena, to which we can relate what is required to be understood, is well known to us. For example, a child, perceiving an adult, can differentiate his gender and calls all familiar and unfamiliar men the word “uncle”, and women - the word “aunt”.
A deeper understanding is when we comprehend not only the general, but also the specific features of the object that distinguish it from what is similar to it. For example, a child at a higher stage of the formation of understanding can distinguish between familiar and strangers, calling familiar people by name.
Significantly helps to deepen the understanding of the transition from a common, undifferentiated perception of something to understanding each part of it and understanding the interaction of these parts. In addition, awareness of the properties of objects and phenomena, their relationships with each other, as well as an understanding of the causes and origin of a particular phenomenon, contribute to a deeper understanding.
In addition to depth understanding has other characteristics. So, the second essential feature of understanding is the clarity of awareness of connections and relationships. This feature also has a number of stages of its formation. For example, in the initial steps, we only “feel” the meaning of what we strive to understand. On other, higher levels, we all understand more clearly the meaning of this or that concept.
The next characteristic of understanding is the full understanding of what needs to be understood. The more complex the subject or phenomenon that needs to be understood, the higher the value of this characteristic of understanding. It is impossible to achieve a high level of understanding of an object or phenomenon, if we do not comprehend every part of it, every property of it.
Another significant feature of understanding is validity, that is, awareness of the grounds by which our understanding of an object or phenomenon must be considered correct. It should be noted that not all understanding can be justified. There are cases when we cannot prove the truth of our judgments.
There are several types of understanding. First, it is a direct understanding. It is characterized by the fact that it is achieved immediately, almost instantly, without requiring significant effort. Secondly, it is mediated, or discursive understanding. This kind of understanding is characterized by the presence of significant efforts that we make to achieve an understanding of any object or phenomenon. This kind of understanding presupposes the existence of a number of mental operations, including comparison, discrimination, analysis, synthesis, etc.
However, in the course of our operation with various judgments using certain mental operations, another form of thinking may arise - inference. Inference is the highest form of thinking and is the formation of new judgments based on the transformation of existing ones. Inference as a form of thinking is based on concepts and judgments and is most often used in the processes of theoretical thinking.
Before we talk about the most well-known theoretical directions in the field of the study of thinking, we should pay attention to the fact that for the first time, when we consider this issue, we will meet with such concepts as intelligence and intellectual abilities.
The word "intellect" comes from the Latin intellectus, translated into Russian, meaning "understanding", "understanding", "comprehension". It should be noted that a common understanding of this term still does not exist. Various authors associate the concept of “intelligence” with a system of mental operations, with a style and strategy for solving life problems, with the effectiveness of an individual approach to a situation requiring cognitive activity, with a cognitive style, etc. Another very common point of view was J. Piaget’s opinion that the intellect is that which ensures the adaptation of man.
It should be noted that to date there is no common interpretation of the concept of "intelligence". Today, there are two basic interpretations of the intellect: wider and narrower. In a broader sense, intelligence is a global integral biopsychic peculiarity of a person, which characterizes his ability to adapt. Another interpretation of the intellect, narrower, unites in this concept a generalized characteristic of a person's mental abilities.
What is the point we will put in the concept of "intelligence"? Will it be true if we consider all manifestations of our thinking as intellect? And will be
Is it true, if, on the contrary, we do not attribute certain manifestations of thinking to the intellect?
We will proceed from the fact that intelligence in modern psychological
science is associated with the process of thinking, and thinking, in turn, is a cognitive mental process that completes the processing of information that we receive from the outside world. Thinking forms concepts about objects and understanding of their interrelations. At the same time, the concepts that we have are the initial platform for the formation of our behavior, since, in forming conscious behavior, we actively use various concepts.
Thus, it can be argued that thinking is directly involved in the adaptation process. Moreover, his participation in adaptation is not limited to the formation of basic concepts. When shaping behavior, a person proceeds from the moral values existing in the society, his own personal interests and the tasks that he needs to solve. Consequently, the formation of behavior and the choice of ways to achieve the goal occur during multiple weighing options and analyzing all the initial concepts. At the same time the main role
in these processes thinking plays.
Often our choice is controversial, but it is always either correct or incorrect. The adequacy of our choice largely depends on the degree of development of the criticality of our thinking. The critical nature of thinking is how well we identify shortcomings in our judgments and the judgments of other people. According to our behavior is not always conscious. Often we act thoughtlessly or use a previously developed behavioral stereotype, not having time to bring it in line with the changed conditions of activity. Consequently, behavior and thinking are connected only in certain, problem cases, when we need to solve a specific mental task, the meaning of which lies in the formation of behavior. When there is no such task, the formation and regulation of behavior can be carried out on
other levels and through other mechanisms.
In addition to the formation of motivated behavior, thinking is involved in activities. Doing any transformative or creative activity cannot do without the process of thinking, because before we create anything, we solve a whole range of mental tasks and only then create in practice what we have created in our consciousness with the help of thinking. Moreover, each of us has a certain level of development of the so-called creative thinking, that is, thinking associated with the formation of fundamentally new knowledge, with the generation of our own ideas. However, speaking about how thinking is involved in activities, we must emphasize that thinking primarily provides cognitive aspects of activity.
Thus, the adaptation of a person, his behavior, his creative activity, bearing a conscious (rational) character, are closely connected with the process of thinking. Therefore, often when we say разум mind ’, mind’, we mean
the process of thinking and its features.
In addition to the above information, forming the concept of “intellect”, let us proceed from the fact that there are manifestations of our thinking that we can evaluate and study with the help of sufficiently objective methods. These manifestations
associated with the solution of certain mental problems based on the processing of perceived information and the creation of original, fundamentally new ideas. Other manifestations of thinking are most often hidden from our consciousness, and if they are realized, then in a relatively obscure form. These manifestations are associated with the adaptation and the formation of motivated (conscious) behavior. Therefore, these processes cannot be directly evaluated using special tests. About the peculiarities of the manifestation of thinking in this area, we can judge only by indirect information, which we obtain in the study of personality and in the study of human behavior. Thus, in the process of thinking, we can single out completely independent components, from the point of view of experimental research, related to the solution of various mental problems, which allows us to consider thinking as an independent mental process. We can also talk about components of thinking that cannot be considered separately from other mental processes. These components are involved in the regulation of behavior.
At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the emergence of the concept of “intellect” is associated with attempts to evaluate the mental and creative abilities of a person with the help of special psychological tests. Therefore, it is more correct to relate the intellect and the ability of a person to perform certain mental activities. Moreover, one cannot consider intelligence as a set of characteristics that ensure a person’s adaptation to the external environment, because a person lives in society and his adaptation is connected with moral values and goals of activity, and the formation of moral values and goals of activity cannot be explained only by their awareness. Often the formation of motives and values occurs at the level of the unconscious. In addition, the success of adaptation also depends on the physiological and psycho-physiological characteristics of the person. Therefore, associating the intellect with thinking, it is advisable to relate it to human cognitive activity, that is, to the area of the manifestation of thinking, which is associated with the processing of information and the solution of certain mental tasks - an area that can be isolated to a certain extent from the entire flow of mental processes and studied independently.
. Thus, by the intellect we shall mean the totality of the most diverse mental abilities ensuring the success of human cognitive activity.
All the most well-known theories that try to explain the fact that a person has thinking and its origin can be divided into two large groups. The first group should include theories proclaiming the presence of natural intellectual abilities in humans. According to the provisions of these theories, intellectual abilities are innate and therefore do not change in the process of life, and their formation does not depend on living conditions.
One of the most famous theories included in the first group is the theory of thinking, developed within the framework of Gestalt psychology. From the standpoint of this scientific direction, intellectual abilities and intelligence itself are defined as a set of internal structures that ensure the perception and processing of information in order to obtain new knowledge. It is considered
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Names
Binet Alfred (1857-1911) - French psychologist, one of the founders of French experimental psychology, the creator of testerology. He was educated in law, medicine, biology. In 1889 founded the first in France laboratory of experimental psychology at the Sorbonne. Since 1894 - Director of the laboratory. At the beginning of the XX century. together with T. Simon began to create tests of the level of mental development of children, which summarized the development of the study of memory, attention, thinking. Introduced the concept of mental age as the level of intellectual development. He was engaged in the development of such problems as the pathology of consciousness and personality, mental fatigue, conceptual thinking, individual differences in the processes of memory. One of the first began the study of higher mental processes in vivo.
that the corresponding intellectual structures exist in a person from birth in a potentially finished form, gradually manifesting as a person grows up and when a need arises for them. При этом способность преобразовывать структуры, видеть их в реальной действительности и есть основа интеллекта.
Другая группа теорий рассматривает умственные способности как развивающиеся в процессе жизни человека. Они пытаются объяснить мышление исходя либо из внешних воздействий среды, либо из идеи внутреннего развития субъекта, или же исходя из того и другого.
Активные исследования мышления проводятся с XVII в. Для начального периода исследований мышления было характерно то, что мышление фактически отождествлялось с логикой, а в качестве единственного его вида, подлежащего изучению, рассматривалось понятийное теоретическое мышление. Сама же способность к мышлению считалась врожденной и поэтому, как правило, рассматривалась вне проблемы развития психики человека. К числу интеллектуальных способностей в то время относились созерцание (как некоторый аналог абстрактного мышления), логическое рассуждение и рефлексия. Операциями мышления считались обобщение, синтез, сравнение и классификация.
Позднее, с появление ассоциативной психологии мышление сводилось во всех его проявлениях к ассоциациям. В качестве механизмов мышления рассматривалась связь следов прошлого опыта и впечатлений, полученных в настоящем опыте. Способность к мышлению рассматривалась как врожденная. Однако представителям данного направления не удалось объяснить происхождение творческого мышления с позиций учения об ассоциациях. Поэтому способность к творчеству рассматривалась как не зависящая от ассоциаций врожденная способность разума.
Мышление широко исследовалось и в рамках бихевиоризма. При этом мышление представлялось как процесс формирования сложных связей между стимулами и реакциями. Бесспорной заслугой бихевиоризма явилось рассмотрение в рамках изучаемой проблемы формирования умений и навыков в процессе решения задач. Благодаря данному направлению психологии в сферу изучения мышления вошла проблема практического мышления.
Определенный вклад в развитие психологии мышления внес и психоанализ, в котором большое внимание уделялось проблеме бессознательных форм мышления, а также изучению зависимости мышления от мотивов и потребностей человека. Именно благодаря поиску бессознательных форм мышления в психоанализе было сформировано понятие «защитных психологических механизмов».
В отечественной психологии проблема мышления развивалась в рамках психологической теории деятельности. Разработка этой проблемы связана с именами А. А. Смирнова, А. Н. Леонтьева и др. С позиций психологической теории деятельности мышление понимается как прижизненно формирующаяся способность к решению разнообразных задач и целесообразному преобразованию действительности. А. Н. Леонтьевым была предложена концепция мышления, согласно которой между структурами внешней (составляющей поведение) и внутренней (составляющей мышление) деятельности существуют аналогии. Внутренняя мыслительная деятельность является не только производной от внешней, практической, но и имеет принципиально то же самое строение. В ней, как и в практической деятельности, могут быть выделены отдельные действия и операции. При этом внутренние и внешние элементы деятельности являются взаимозаменяемыми. В состав мыслительной, теоретической деятельности могут входить внешние, практические действия, и наоборот, в структуру практической деятельности могут включаться внутренние, мыслительные операции и действия. Следовательно, мышление как высший психический процесс формируется в процессе деятельности.
It should be noted that the activity theory of thinking contributed to the solution of many practical problems related to the training and mental development of children. On its basis, well-known theories of learning and development were constructed, among them theories of P. Ya. Halperin, L. V. Zankov, and V. V. Davydov. However, recently, with the development of mathematics and cybernetics, the opportunity to create a new information-cybernetic theory of thinking has appeared. It turned out that many of the special operations used in computer-aided information processing programs are very similar to the operations of thinking that a person uses. Therefore, it became possible to study the operations of human thinking using cybernetics and machine models of intelligence. At present, even a whole scientific problem has been formulated, called the problem of “artificial intelligence”.
In parallel with the theoretical search, experimental studies of the thinking process are constantly being conducted. So, at the beginning of the XX century. French psychologists A. Vine and T. Simon suggested determining the degree of mental giftedness by means of special tests. Their work initiated the widespread introduction of tests in the problem of research thinking. Currently, there are a huge number of various tests designed for people of different ages from 2 to 65 years. Moreover, all the tests intended for the study of thinking can be divided into several groups. First of all, these are tests of achievement, indicating that a person has a certain amount of knowledge in a given scientific and practical field. Another group consists of intellectual tests, designed primarily to assess the compliance of the intellectual development of the subject with a biological age. Another group is the criteria-based tests designed to assess the ability of a person to solve certain intellectual problems.
Currently, the Stanford Binet test is widely known. It consists of scales for assessing general awareness, level of speech development, perception, memory, ability for logical thinking. All tasks in the test are distributed by age. The judgment on intellectual development (IQ) is made on the basis of a comparison of the results of the survey of a particular person with the average indicators of the corresponding age group. Therefore, with the help of this test, it is possible to determine the so-called mental age of the patient (compliance of the result obtained with the average of the corresponding physical age).
Another equally well-known test for assessing intellectual development is the Wexlr's test. There are several variants of this test, which are used in accordance with the age of the subject. The test consists of separate subtests. The results shown to the surveyed for these subtests are taken into account when forming the two main indicators of the test: VIP is a verbal intellectual indicator that summarizes the indicators of subtests using speech;
NPC is a non-verbal intellectual indicator, consisting of the results of the assignments, where speech is not directly used.
An independent group of tests are the criteria-orientation tests, which, as mentioned above, are designed to assess a person's ability to solve certain intellectual problems. The most famous tests of this group in Russian psychology are the MIOM test and the modification of the intelligent battery of tests by E. Amhauer, proposed by B. M. Kulagin and M. M. Reshetnikov (test “KR-3-85”). These tests consist of a number of subtests that assess the level of development of logical and analytical thinking, the ability to perform arithmetic operations, the level of development of figurative thinking, the level of development of verbal and non-verbal memory, etc. On the basis of the performance of these tests, a conclusion is made about the level of development of certain mental processes , allowing the subject to successfully perform certain intellectual actions. Therefore, the criterion-orientation tests, as a rule, are used in solving the problems of professional selection.
Recently, achievement tests have become widely used. For example, in the process of studying at school, students are offered to perform control tests in order to check the quality and volume of knowledge. Like criterion-orientation tests, achievement tests are widely used in solving the problems of professional selection. The expediency of this is due to the fact that the successful mastery of a profession requires a certain general educational level. The more difficult the profession that needs to be mastered, the more stringent the requirements for the general education training of candidates.
It should be noted that any of the tests designed to assess intellectual development, to a greater or lesser extent, can be perceived as a kind of experimental model. Moreover, in the process of experimental research, a number of conceptual and experimental models of intelligence were created. One of the most famous models is the model of intelligence proposed by J. Guilford (Fig. 12.3). According to Guilford's concept, intelligence is a multidimensional phenomenon that can be evaluated in three directions.
boards: content, product and character. The mental operation included in the intellect, by its nature, may be the following: evaluation, synthesis, analysis, memorization, cognition. By product, a mental operation can be: a unit, a class, a relation, a system, a transformation, a reasoning. According to the content, a mental operation can be an action with objects, symbols, a transformation of
продолжение следует...
Часть 1 12 Mental Processes Thinking
Часть 2 12.4. Main types of mental operations - 12 Mental Processes
Часть 3 test questions - 12 Mental Processes Thinking
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General psychology
Terms: General psychology