Article on the topic “Thinking as a higher cognitive process”

Your psychologist. The work of a psychologist at school.

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3.2.2 Thinking

Sensory cognition gives a person information about nine specific objects in their directly cognizable properties. However, not every phenomenon is accessible to direct sensory perception. For example, a person does not perceive ultraviolet rays, but he, nevertheless, knows about their existence and properties. Such knowledge becomes possible indirectly. This path is the path of thinking. In the most general terms, it consists in the fact that we subject some things to the test of other things and, aware of the established relations of interaction between them, judge by the change we perceive in them about the properties of these things that are directly hidden from us. Thinking is the highest cognitive process. It represents the generation of new knowledge, an active form of creative reflection and transformation of reality by man. Thinking generates a result that does not currently exist either in the activity itself or in the subject. Thinking can also be understood as the acquisition of new knowledge, the creative transformation of existing ideas. The difference between thinking and other psychological processes is also that it is almost always associated with the presence of a problem situation, a task that needs to be solved, and an active change in the conditions in which this task is given. Thinking, unlike perception, goes beyond the sensory data and expands the boundaries of knowledge. In thinking based on sensory information, certain theoretical and practical conclusions are made. It reflects existence not only in the form of individual things, phenomena and their properties, but also determines the connections that exist between them, which most often are not given directly to man in his very perception. The properties of things and phenomena, the connections between them are reflected in thinking in a generalized form, in the form of laws and entities. Thus, thinking is a generalized and indirect reflection of reality by a person in its essential connections and relationships. A generalized reflection of reality, which is thinking, is the result of processing not only the experience of an individual person and his contemporaries, but also of previous generations. A person resorts to indirect cognition in the following cases: - direct cognition is impossible due to our analyzers (for example, we do not have analyzers for capturing X-rays); - direct cognition is possible in principle, but impossible under the given conditions; - direct knowledge is possible, but not rational. Thinking makes it possible to understand the patterns of the material world, cause-and-effect relationships in nature and in socio-historical life, as well as the patterns of the human psyche. The source and criterion of mental reality, as well as the area for applying its results, is practice. In practice, thinking as a separate mental process does not exist; it is invisibly present in all other cognitive processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory, speech. The highest forms of these processes are necessarily associated with thinking, and the degree of its participation in these cognitive processes determines their level of development. The physiological basis of thinking is the reflex activity of the brain, those temporary nerve connections that are formed in the cerebral cortex. These connections arise under the influence of signals from the second system (speech), reflecting reality, but with mandatory reliance on signals from the first system (sensation, perception, ideas). In the process of thinking, both signaling systems are closely connected with each other. The second signaling system relies on the first and determines the continuous connection of the generalized reflection of reality, which is thinking, with sensory knowledge of the objective world through sensations, perceptions, and ideas. Thinking is the movement of ideas that reveals the essence of things. Its result is not an image, but a certain thought, an idea. A concept can be a specific result of thinking. In its development, thinking goes through two stages: - pre-conceptual; - conceptual. Pre-conceptual thinking is inherent in a child under five years of age. It is characterized by insensitivity to contradictions, syncretism (the tendency to connect everything with everything), transduction (the transition from the particular to the particular, bypassing the general), and the absence of the idea of ​​​​the conservation of quantity (S.L. Rubinstein). Conceptual thinking develops gradually from the child’s simple putting together of objects through the establishment of similarities and differences between them to conceptual thinking, which is formed by the age of 16-17. The human thought process is carried out in two main forms: 1) the formation and assimilation of concepts, judgments and conclusions; 2) solving mental problems. A concept is a form of thinking that reflects the essential properties, connections and relationships of objects and phenomena, which is expressed in a word or group of words. For example, the concept of “person” includes such very significant features as articulate speech, labor activity and the production of tools. Concepts are usually distinguished: - by the degree of abstraction (concrete and abstract); — by volume (single and general). When, from all the characteristics of an object, a certain set of characteristics is identified that characterizes this particular object or a group of similar ones, we are dealing with a specific concept (for example, “city”, “furniture”). If, with the help of abstraction, a certain feature is highlighted in an object and this feature becomes the subject of study and, in addition, is considered as a special subject, then an abstract concept arises (for example, “justice”, “equality”). As a structural unit of thought, a judgment is built on a set of concepts. Judgment is a form of thinking that reflects the connections between objects and phenomena of reality and their properties and characteristics. For example, the Earth revolves around the Sun. Judgments are formed in two ways: directly, when they express what is perceived, and indirectly - through inferences or reasoning. Inference is a form of thinking in which a conclusion is drawn based on several judgments. For example, all the planets in the solar system revolve around the sun. Earth is a planet in the solar system, which means it revolves around the sun. Conclusions can be reached using the following methods: induction, deduction, analogy. Induction is a logical conclusion that reflects the direction of thought from the particular to the general. Deduction is a logical conclusion that reflects the direction of thought from the general to the specific. Analogy is a logical conclusion that reflects the direction of thought from particular to particular. Each act of thinking is a process of solving a problem that arises in the course of human cognition or practical activity. Depending on the style of mental activity of a person and the accessibility of the content of the problem for him, its solution can be carried out in various ways. The least desirable method is trial and error, in which there is usually neither a sufficiently clear understanding of the task nor the construction and purposeful testing of various hypotheses. This method, as a rule, does not lead to the accumulation of experience and does not serve as a condition for human mental development. Methods for solving a mental problem, which not only allow you to quickly find an answer, but are also conditions for a person’s mental development, can be named such as passive and active use of an algorithm, targeted transformation of the conditions of the problem, heuristic ways of solving the problem. The problem solving process consists of five stages: 1. Motivation (desire to solve the problem). 2. Analysis of the problem. 3. Search for a solution to the problem based on a known algorithm, on the basis of choosing the optimal option and on the basis of a fundamentally new solution, taking into account logical reasoning, analogies, heuristic and empirical techniques. The solution to a problem is often facilitated by insight. 4. Proof and justification of the correctness of the decision. 5. Implementation and verification of the solution, and, if necessary, its correction. Thinking, unlike other processes, occurs in accordance with a certain logic. In order to identify objective relationships and interconnections between objects and phenomena during the formation of concepts, judgments, conclusions and solving mental problems, a person resorts to mental operations - compares, analyzes, generalizes and classifies. Accordingly, the following logical operations can be distinguished in the structure of thinking: 1. Comparison - establishing relations of similarity and difference. The result of comparison, in addition, can be systematization or classification - the mental distribution of objects and phenomena into groups and subgroups. Often it acts as the primary form of theoretical and practical knowledge. 2. A deeper penetration into the essence of things requires the disclosure of their internal connections, patterns and essential properties. It is performed using analysis and synthesis. Analysis is the dissection of an object, mental or practical, into its constituent elements and their subsequent comparison. Synthesis is the construction of a whole from analytically given parts. Analysis and synthesis are usually carried out together and contribute to a deeper understanding of reality. “Analysis and synthesis,” wrote S.L. Rubinstein, “common denominators” of the entire cognitive process. They relate not only to abstract thinking, but also to sensory cognition and perception. In terms of sensory cognition, analysis is expressed in the identification of some sensory property of an object that had not been properly identified before. The cognitive significance of analysis is due to the fact that it isolates and emphasizes, highlights the essential.” Theoretical, practical, imaginative and abstract intelligence in its formation is associated with the improvement of thinking operations, primarily analysis, synthesis and generalization. 3. Abstraction is the isolation of any side or aspect of a phenomenon that in reality does not exist as an independent entity. Abstraction is performed for a more thorough study and, as a rule, on the basis of a previously performed analysis and synthesis. The result of all these operations is often the formation of concepts. Not only properties, but also actions, in particular methods of solving problems, can be abstracted. Their use and transfer to other conditions is possible only when the selected method of solution is realized and meaningful regardless of the specific task. 4. Generalization acts as a connection of the essential (abstraction) and connecting it with a class of objects and phenomena. The concept becomes one of the forms of mental generalization. 5. Concretization acts as an operation inverse to generalization. This is a distraction from general characteristics and emphasizing the particular, individual. It is defined, for example, in the fact that from the general definition of a concept a judgment is derived about the belonging of individual things and phenomena to a certain class. All these operations, according to S.L. Rubinstein [65], are different aspects of the main operation of thinking - mediation (that is, the disclosure of increasingly significant connections and relationships). Let's consider the types and types of thinking, and its individual characteristics. There are different approaches to defining types of thinking. • Based on the degree of development of the tasks being solved, thinking is distinguished: - discursive (inferential); - intuitive - instantaneous, characterized by minimal awareness. • Thinking is a kind of theoretical and practical activity that involves a system of actions and operations of an indicative, research, transformative and cognitive nature included in it. Thus, according to the nature of the problems being solved, thinking is divided into: - theoretical (conceptual) conceptual thinking - this is thinking, using which a person, in the process of solving a problem, turns to concepts, performs actions in the mind, without directly dealing with the experience gained with the help of organs feelings. He discusses and searches for a solution to a problem from beginning to end in his mind, using ready-made knowledge obtained by other people, expressed in conceptual form, judgments and inferences. Theoretical conceptual thinking is characteristic of scientific theoretical research. — theoretical figurative thinking differs from conceptual thinking in that the material that a person uses here to solve a problem is not concepts, judgments or inferences, but images. They are either directly retrieved from memory or creatively recreated by the imagination. This type of thinking is used by creative people who deal with images. In the course of solving mental problems, the corresponding images are mentally transmitted so that a person, as a result of manipulating them, can directly see the solution to the problem that interests him. Both types of thinking considered - theoretical conceptual and theoretical figurative - in reality, as a rule, coexist. They complement each other and reveal to a person different but interconnected aspects of existence. Theoretical conceptual thinking provides, although abstract, but at the same time the most accurate, generalized reflection of reality. Theoretical figurative thinking allows us to obtain a specific subjective perception of it, which is no less real than an objective conceptual one. Without one or another type of thinking, a person’s perception of reality would not be as deep and versatile, accurate and rich in various shades as it actually is. - practical, carried out on the basis of social experience and experiment. • Based on the content of the tasks to be solved, the following are distinguished: - objective-effective; - visually figurative; - verbal and logical thinking. Visual-effective thinking is based on the direct perception of objects, the real transformation of the situation in the process of actions with objects. The main condition for solving the problem in this case is the correct actions with the appropriate objects. This type of thinking is widely represented among people engaged in real production work, the result of which is the creation of a specific material product. Visual-figurative thinking is characterized by reliance on ideas and images. Its peculiarity is that the thought process in it is directly related to the thinking person’s perception of the surrounding reality and cannot take place without it. Thoughts are visual and figurative, a person is tied to reality, and the images themselves necessary for thinking are presented in his short-term and operative memory (in contrast, images for theoretical figurative thinking are extracted from long-term memory and then transformed). Its functions are related to the presentation of situations and changes in them that a person wants to obtain as a result of his activities that transform the situation. In contrast to visual-effective thinking, it is transformed only in terms of image (J. Piaget) [60]. This form of thinking is most fully and comprehensively represented among children of preschool and primary school age, and among adults - among people engaged in practical work. This type of thinking is quite developed in all people who often have to make decisions about the objects of their activity only by observing them, but without directly touching them. Verbal-logical thinking is carried out using logical operations with concepts. Within this type, the following types of thinking are distinguished: - theoretical; - practical; — analytical; - realistic; - autistic; - productive and reproductive; - involuntary and voluntary. Theoretical thinking is the knowledge of laws, rules, development of concepts and hypotheses. Practical thinking is the preparation of a transformation of reality (developing a goal, creating a plan, a diagram, testing hypotheses under conditions of severe time pressure). Analytical (logical) thinking is temporary, structural (stage-by-stage) and conscious in nature. Realistic thinking is aimed at the outside world and is governed by the laws of logic. Autistic thinking is associated with the realization of a person’s desires. Productive is reproducing thinking based on novelty in mental activity, and reproductive is reproducing thinking in a given image and likeness. Involuntary thinking involves the transformation of dream images, and voluntary thinking involves the purposeful solution of mental problems. Thinking has a pronounced individual character. The peculiarities of individual thinking are manifested in different relationships of types and forms, operations and procedures of mental activity. Thus, all of the listed types of thinking coexist in humans and can be represented in the same activity. However, depending on its nature and ultimate goals, one or another type of thinking dominates. For this reason they all differ. In terms of their degree of complexity, in terms of the demands they place on a person’s intellectual and other abilities, all of these types of thinking are not inferior to each other. The most important qualities of thinking are: • Independence of thinking - the ability to put forward new problems and find ways to solve them without resorting to the help of other people. • Initiative - a constant desire to seek and find ways and means to solve a problem. • depth - the ability to penetrate the essence of things and phenomena, understand the causes and deep patterns. • LATY - the ability to see problems multilaterally, in conjunction with other phenomena. • speed - the speed of solving problems, ease of reproduction of ideas. • originality - the ability to produce new ideas that are different from generally accepted. • Inquisitiveness is the need to always find the best solution to the tasks and problems. • Criticality is an objective assessment of objects and phenomena, the desire to question the hypothesis and solution. • Hasterness - the imperceptibility of aspects of a comprehensive study of the problem, snatching only individuals from it, a statement of inaccurate answers and judgments. Thinking is required-motivated and focused in nature. All operations of the thought process are caused by the needs, motives, interests of the individual, its goals and objectives. Of great importance are a person’s active desire to develop his intelligence and willingness to actively use him in useful activity. One of the difficult problems of learning at school and a university (especially technical) is the emphasis on the development of formal logical thinking to the detriment of figurative thinking. As a result, students and students become as if enslaved by their own formal-logical thinking: the desire for creativity, high spiritual requests seem completely unnecessary to some of them. It is necessary that both of these types of thinking develop harmoniously so that imaginative thinking does not turn out to be constrained by rationality, so that a person’s creative potential does not run out. According to D. Gilford, creative thinking has the following features [10]: - originality and unusual ideas, their intellectual novelty; - the ability to manifest semantic flexibility, that is, the ability to see an object from a new angle; - figurative adaptive flexibility, that is, the ability to change perception in order to see all aspects of the object hidden from observation; Semantic spontaneous flexibility when comparing various ideas. A serious obstacle to creative thinking is the commitment to old solutions: a tendency to conformism, fear of seeming stupid and funny, extravagant or aggressive; fear of mistakes and fear of criticism; overstated assessment of their own ideas; high level of anxiety; Mental and muscle tension. The conditions of successful solving creative problems are more frequent detection and application of new methods; successful overcoming of the prevailing stereotypes; the ability to take risk, freeing from fear and protective reactions, a combination of optimal motivation and the corresponding level of emotional excitement; The variety and multidirectionality of knowledge and skills that orient thinking to new approaches. Thinking is organically related to speech and language. Their occurrence and development marks the emergence of a new special form of reflection of reality and its management. It is important to distinguish the language from speech [15]. Language is a system of conditional symbols by which combinations of sounds are conveyed that have certain meaning and meaning for people. Speech is a set of pronounced or perceived sounds that have the same meaning and also meaning as the corresponding system of written characters. The language is one for all people who use it, speech is individual. In speech, the psychology of a single person or community of people is expressed for whom these features of speech are characteristic; The language reflects the psychology of the people for whom it is native, and not only now living people, but also previous generations. Speech without assimilation of a language is impossible, while language can exist and develop relatively independently of a person, according to laws that are not related to either his psychology or his behavior. The link between the language and the speech is the meaning of the word, since it is expressed both in the units of the language and in the units of speech. Speech performs a number of functions: - expresses the individual originality of human psychology; - acts as a carrier of information, memory and consciousness; - is a means of thinking; - acts as a regulator of human communication and his own behavior; - It is a means of managing the behavior of other people. The main function of speech in humans is that it is a tool of thinking. In a word as a concept, much more information is contained than can carry a simple combination of sounds. The fact that human thinking is inextricably linked with speech is primarily proved by psychophysiological studies of the participation of the voice apparatus in solving mental problems. In the most complex and intense moments of thinking, a person has increased activity of the vocal cords. Emotional-thought outbreaks, as a rule, cause an increase in speechwriting activity. In these cases, mental operations and speech -related reactions are performed in unity and interdependence. In speech thinking, the word and thought are constantly united. The main path of development of human speech is its inclusion in the management of all cognitive processes and interconnection. Speech is actively developing during training and education. The formation and development of speech occurs during three periods: - phonetic - to assimilate the sound appearance of the word (up to 2 years); - grammatical - to assimilate the structural laws of the organization of the statement (up to 3 years); - semantic - by the assimilation of conceptual assignment (up to 17 years). Consciously and unconsciously selected images of speech behavior are fixed and become familiar in the speech activity of a person. So the style of speech activity is born, characteristic of each person, which largely determines the internal and appearance of his personality. The professional activity of a person has a great influence on the style of speech. The artist is characterized by emotional and expressive speech, for the military-command-war, for the writer-figuratively narrative, for a business person-utilitarian and pragmatic, for the scientist and teacher-conceptual-explanatory. Purposefully engaged in the development of speech, a person increases its culture, increases his erudition, which means he enriches and develops his intelligence. One of the main tasks of psychology is to reveal in each person the reserves of thinking and speech that he does not use, to outline the ways of self -learning and self -development of his creative intelligence. Control questions 1. The essence of thinking as a cognitive process. Thinking as indirect knowledge. Definition of thinking. Thinking and perception. Thinking and speech. Emotions and thinking. 2. Two signaling systems of reflection of reality, their relationship in the process of thinking. 3. Doponical and conceptual thinking. 4. Formation of concepts. 5. Mental operations. Analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, generalization. 6. Thinking in the process of solving problems. 7. Types of thinking. Practical and theoretical thinking. Visual-effective, visual-figurative and conceptual thinking. Surgical thinking. 8. Creative thinking and the problem of intuition. 9. Individual differences in thinking. Mental activity and individual cognitive style. 10. Speech as a cognitive process and speech as a means of communication. 11. General characteristics of speech as a communicative process. The role of the language in communication. 12. Speech functions. 13. The development of speech in ontogenesis.

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1.1. The concept of thinking as a mental process in psychology

Life constantly poses problems that cannot be solved relying only on the perception of surrounding objects and phenomena or on the recollection of what has already been perceived before. Many questions must be answered indirectly, drawing conclusions from what is already available regarding other similar individual objects, phenomena and facts.

Sensation and perception give us knowledge of the individual - individual objects

and real world phenomena. 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.

Consequently, in order to foresee, it is necessary to generalize individual objects and facts and, based on these generalizations, draw conclusions regarding other individual objects and facts of the same kind. This multi-stage transition - from the individual to the general and from the general again

to the individual - is carried out thanks to a special mental process - thinking.

Thinking is the highest cognitive mental process. The essence of this process is the generation of new knowledge based on the creative reflection and transformation of reality by man.

Thinking as a special mental process has a number of specific characteristics and features. The first such sign is a generalized reflection of reality.

A generalized reflection (cognition) of reality is the most important feature of thinking. Not always a person’s experience can provide sufficient material for generalization. In their activities, people constantly rely on common experience learned from others, generalized and enshrined in language. Generalizations reflect the general and therefore most essential properties of objects and phenomena, their general and therefore natural connections. By generalizing, we understand the essence of the subject. Only with the help of thinking do we recognize what is common in objects and phenomena, those natural, essential connections between them that are inaccessible directly to sensation and perception and which constitute the essence, the pattern of objective reality. Therefore, we can say that thinking is a reflection of natural, essential connections.

So thinking –

This is a process of indirect and generalized cognition (reflection) of the surrounding world.

The next most important characteristic feature of thinking is that thinking is always associated with the solution of one or another problem that arose in the process of cognition or in practical activity. The thinking process begins to manifest itself most clearly only when a problematic situation arises that needs to be solved. Thinking always begins with a question, the answer to which is the goal of thinking. Moreover, the answer to this question is not found immediately, but with the help of certain mental operations, during which the existing information is modified and transformed.

An extremely important feature of thinking is its inextricable connection with speech.

By highlighting something common in objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, a person denotes it in words. Through the word, a person learns for the first time about something that he has not yet seen (and perhaps will never see). Speech is a form of thinking. Thoughts always take the form of speech. Speech is not only a form, but also a tool of thinking. By expressing thoughts in detailed verbal form, we contribute to the success of mental activity. Speech helps you think.