How to shape your thinking. Types and processes of thinking

Every day a person is faced with a lot of life problems that need to be solved logically. This includes the correct structure of the work routine, official moments and even personal life. It would seem that everything is quite simple: exclude unimportant details, focus on serious aspects, thereby correctly setting priorities. However, in practice the situation requires some effort. You can develop logic on your own without enrolling in special courses. Let's consider all the nuances in more detail.

Logical thinking: what is it?

The concept of “logical thinking” is easier to explain if we break the phrase into “logic” and “thinking.” Let's try to figure it out together, highlighting the main thing.

Logics
The concept comes from the Greek “reasoning”, “thought”, “the art of reasoning correctly”, “the science of thinking”. Let's look at the concept, taking as a basis the science of correct thinking. It consists of several aspects, such as laws, methods and forms of human intelligence, namely his thoughts.

Logic is needed in order to achieve truth in the process of reasoning. Thanks to active brain activity, a certain scheme is launched that leads a person to the end point. The result is taken not by intuition, but from previously acquired knowledge.

For this reason, logic is often called a science that allows one to reach conclusions through many conclusions and their connection. The main task of logic is to summarize the existing fragments together. As a result, a person receives true knowledge regarding the subject of reflection.

Thinking

The concept is directly related to human mental activity. It forces you to process information on a subconscious level. This must be done in order to establish a connection between the objects being studied, to highlight their forms and meaning among other bodies in the environment.

Thinking allows you to find connections between aspects of reality. However, in order for the process to occur at the “correct” level, you need to think objectively. That is, before the main tasks, it is important to put yourself at the center of the current process, and not observe everything from the outside. Objective or logical thinking must obey the basic laws of logic.

Logical thinking
From the above we can conclude what “logical thinking” is. As a result of the thought process, a person applies knowledge acquired earlier. Then, through inferences, they are processed. All structures are connected in a logical chain in order. Conclusions are not based on assumptions, but on clear evidence, facts, prudence, objectivity, and the general laws of logic. Ultimately, based on the existing premises, the truth is obtained.

Why develop logical thinking

It is human nature to process information through brainstorming. Simply put, all people think this is a completely natural process. Thinking allows you to build a chain of personal behavior, draw the right conclusions in a given situation, and take action. Such aspects play an important role in situations where a decision is urgently needed. Ultimately, the goal will be achieved through logical conclusions.

When you fully learn the art of analyzing information, issues will be resolved much faster. Thanks to the correct collection and processing of information, you can build a long-term perspective regarding your own actions. Aspects like these help people feel comfortable in any situation. You will calculate possible nuances in advance, then immediately eliminate them in your head by searching for a new solution. You always need to think logically, no matter whether you are at work or at home.

The world's greatest minds come up with new ways to develop logical thinking every year. Experienced business trainers, politicians, psychologists - they all help people develop. The most relevant ways to achieve what you want are considered to be puzzles aimed at demonstrating logic. Also effective are games, a set of exercises for objective thinking, reading scientific and fiction literature, and learning foreign languages.

Method number 1. Reading

  1. Many people know that books allow you to gain wisdom and become a versatile and well-read person. However, success can only be achieved through fiction or non-fiction. It is in such publications that there is more knowledge than in numerous reference books.
  2. To develop logical thinking, read at least 10 sheets daily. At the same time, it is important to analyze each line, gradually accumulating information in your head. The brain has selective properties, so at a certain moment you will be able to retrieve the necessary information.
  3. While reading, analyze the chapters, try to think logically from the beginning. Place bets on how the book will end, how this or that character will act in a particular situation. A. Conan Doyle's book "Sherlock Holmes" is considered a world bestseller. The work helps to develop logical thinking and while away the evening in pleasant company.

Method number 2. Games

  1. The most common games aimed at developing logical thinking are checkers and chess. In the process of rivalry, opponents calculate their actions many steps ahead. It is this move that allows you to win, nothing else. It’s not difficult to learn tactics; it’s enough to devote 2-3 hours to this task every day. As the age of technology leaves its mark on society, you can play on a computer, phone or tablet. At the same time, you will have access to the logic simulator around the clock, regardless of the location and other “live” opponents.
  2. The next most popular game is Scrabble. Many have heard about it since childhood. A linguistic simulator for people who have a small vocabulary and slow logic. As a result of the manipulations, you will learn to form words from the available letters, laying them out in a certain sequence. As in the previous case, you can play on a PC or smartphone. In addition to developing logic, you will become more concentrated and attentive.
  3. To improve logical thinking, you can play with words. There are several variations of such an adventure, let's consider them in order. Some people prefer to name one long word (number of letters from 10), after which the task of other participants is to create other words from the “raw materials”. The one whose number is the largest will win. The second option is as follows: a person names a word, the person following him pronounces another word, starting with the last letter of the previous one. For example, you said “sailor”, your opponent answered “apartment”.
  4. The World Wide Web is literally replete with various banners that offer to go to a site with logical riddles. Such a move will help develop thinking not only in adults, but also in children. Crosswords, Sudoku, puzzles, and reversi are also considered popular games. Download apps to your smartphone that help develop logical thinking. This move will allow you to train your brain on public transport or in a traffic jam. This is much more useful than studying advertising leaflets and tired faces of people.
  5. Take a closer look at games like Rubik's cube or backgammon, put together a puzzle, play poker. Thanks to increased concentration, memory and logical thinking develop. The World Wide Web allows you to play without a second partner, which is an undeniable advantage. You can solve a Rubik's cube while relaxing between classes or during your lunch break. The main thing in any business is regularity. Perform simple manipulations daily to achieve maximum results.

Method No. 3. Exercises

  1. Mathematical problems and logical chains from the school (institute) curriculum will help you develop logic quickly enough. Find old textbooks and start manipulating. Perform the exercise daily for 30-60 minutes. It will be especially difficult for humanities students, for whom mathematics is a bone in their throat. An analogue is the search for analogies or deciphering anagrams.
  2. Consider an exercise that involves orderly arranging words or phrases on the same topic. The main task is the following: it is necessary to arrange words from least to greatest. That is, the first designation characterizes a specific type, and the last - a generalized concept. Let's give an example with the word “violet”. Violet - name - flower - plant. The more words you select and arrange them into one chain, the more logical thinking will be involved. The complex must be performed at least 2 times a day for 15 minutes.
  3. Another exercise is aimed not only at logical thinking, but also at the development of intellectual abilities, attentiveness, observation, concentration and general perception. The main point is that you need to determine whether the conclusion is correct. Is it logical based on the connection between judgments.

For example: “Cats meow. Alice is a cat, therefore she can meow! The judgment is logically correct. If we talk about incorrect logic, then it looks like this: “Wool clothes are warm. The boots are also warm, which means they are made of wool!” Misjudgment, the boots may not be made of wool, but their thermal qualities will exceed all expectations.

This exercise is often used by parents when working with children. It is important to ask your child to explain this or that conclusion. In this case, the child will quickly come to the desired conclusion.

Method number 4. Foreign language

  1. It is known that new information received activates brain activity, as a result of which all processes take place at the highest level. The sounds of foreign languages ​​will force you to think logically and make associations between native and foreign speech.
  2. Find an online course on the Internet or download video lessons and study daily. Enroll in a language school, learn English, Spanish or even Chinese thoroughly.
  3. The effect of the knowledge gained will not be long in coming. In addition, you will be able to travel around countries, speaking freely with local residents. Communicate in chats and forums with residents of Europe or America, develop your acquired knowledge.

It is quite difficult to develop logical thinking, but the procedure cannot be called unrealistic. Consider popular games such as backgammon, checkers, chess, and poker. Solve mathematical problems, build logical chains using electronic resources, learn foreign languages.

Video: how to develop logic and speed of thinking

Introduction 3

1. Thinking 5

1.1. Concept of thinking 5

1.2. Basic operations as aspects of mental activity 5

1.3. Logical operations of thinking 7

1.4. Main phases of the thought process 8

1.5. Types of thinking 9

2. Ways to develop thinking 14

2.1. Thinking Development Concepts 14

2.2. Connection of thinking with memory, sensations, perception 16

2.3. The relationship between thinking and speech 17

2.4. Motivation thinking 18

2.5. Thinking in problem solving 24

2.6. Individual characteristics of thinking 24

2.7. Formation of thinking 27

Conclusion 28

Literature 29

Introduction

Thinking is the height of bliss and the joy of life, the most valiant occupation of man.

Aristotle

The problem of the development of thinking has concerned the minds of scientists and the public since ancient times. For a long time, the process of thinking was considered as a subject of study in such disciplines as philosophy, religion, and logic. Only later did the problem of thinking begin to be considered in psychology and became the subject of precise experimental research. The work describes the sequence of development of thinking, starting from an early age, the stages of formation of visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking, and their characteristics are given. The types of mental activity are indicated depending on the type of tasks being solved and their orientation. The interrelations of types of thinking and the transition of one type of mental activity to another are considered. This work describes various theories of thinking, materialistic and idealistic approaches. The topic of studying thinking remains relevant today. Thinking is studied by psychology, physiology, pathology, and psychiatry. Through observation, experiment, testing, and clinical research, defects in the development of thinking are identified and ways of correcting them are found. All this would have been impossible without knowledge of the fundamentals of the process of development of thinking, without the research activities of ancient and modern scientists.

The ability to think is gradually formed in the process of human development, the development of his cognitive activity. Cognition begins with the brain reflecting reality in sensations and perceptions, which form the sensory basis of thinking.

We can talk about human thinking from the time when he begins to reflect some of the simplest connections between objects and phenomena and act correctly in accordance with them.

Since thinking is the highest form of reflection of the surrounding world by the brain, the most complex cognitive process of understanding the world, characteristic only of humans, it is very important to develop and study the development of thinking, starting from an early age.

The purpose of our course work: identify the basic patterns of development and diagnostics of thinking.

At the same time, we are faced with the following tasks:

    summarize material about types of thinking;

    consider thinking as one of the cognitive processes;

    determine the features of the development and diagnosis of thinking;

    study methods of thinking research;

    summarize ways to develop thinking;

When writing the work, the following methods of scientific and pedagogical research were used:

    method of scientific knowledge;

    theoretical research;

    synthesis of best practices.

1. Thinking

1.1.The concept of thinking

Knowledge of objective reality begins with sensation and perception. But, starting with sensations and perception, knowledge does not end with them. From sensations and perception it moves to thinking.

Thinking expands the boundaries of our knowledge. Sensations and perceptions reflect individual aspects of phenomena, moments of reality in more or less random combinations. Thinking correlates the data of sensations and perceptions - it compares, compares, distinguishes, reveals relationships, mediations, and through the relationships between directly sensory-given properties of things and phenomena, reveals new, not directly sense-given, abstract properties; By identifying relationships and comprehending reality in these relationships, thinking understands its essence more deeply.

S. L. Rubinstein defined thinking in this way: “Thinking is the movement of thought, revealing a connection that leads from the individual to the general and from the general to the individual. Thinking is indirect - based on the disclosure of connections, relationships, mediations - and generalized knowledge of objective reality.”

1.2.Basic operations as aspects of mental activity

Analysis and synthesis are the most important mental operations that are inextricably linked. In unity they provide complete and comprehensive knowledge of reality.

Analysis is the mental division of an object or phenomenon into its constituent parts or the mental isolation of individual properties, features, and qualities in it. When we perceive an object, we can mentally isolate one part after another and thus find out what parts it consists of.

Synthesis is a mental connection of individual parts of objects or a mental combination of their individual properties. If analysis provides knowledge of individual elements, then synthesis, based on the results of analysis, combining these elements, provides knowledge of the object as a whole.

Just like analysis, synthesis can be carried out through direct perception of objects and phenomena or through mental representation of them. There are two types of synthesis: as a mental unification of parts of a whole (for example, thinking through the composition of a literary work) and as a mental combination of various signs, properties, aspects of objects and phenomena of reality (for example, a mental representation of a phenomenon based on a description of its individual signs or properties).

Analysis and synthesis often arise at the beginning of practical activity. Developing on the basis of practical activity and visual perception, analysis and synthesis must also be carried out as independent, purely mental operations. Every complex thought process involves analysis and synthesis.

Abstraction is the mental selection of essential properties and features of objects or phenomena while simultaneously abstracting from non-essential features and properties.

Generalization closely related to abstraction. When generalizing, objects and phenomena are combined together on the basis of their common and essential features. The basis is taken from the characteristics that we obtained during abstraction, for example, all metals are electrically conductive. Generalization, like abstraction, occurs with the help of words. Every word refers not to a single object or phenomenon, but to a set of similar individual objects.

Concretization is a mental representation of something individual that corresponds to a particular concept or general position.

1.3.Logical operations of thinking

In addition to the types and operations considered, there are also thinking processes. These include judgment, inference, definition of concepts, induction, deduction. Judgment This is a statement containing a specific thought. Inference is a series of logically related statements from which new knowledge is derived. The definition of concepts is considered as a system of judgments about a certain class of objects (phenomena), highlighting their most general characteristics. Induction and deduction these are ways of producing inferences that determine the direction of thought from the particular to the general, or vice versa. Induction involves the derivation of a particular judgment from a general one, and deduction presupposes the derivation of a general judgment from particular ones.

Although logical operations are organically part of thinking, it does not always act as a process in which only logic and reason act. Emotions often interfere with the thinking process and change it. .

Emotions, however, can not only distort, but also stimulate thinking. It is known that feeling gives passion, intensity, sharpness, purposefulness and persistence to thoughts. Without heightened feeling, productive thought is just as impossible as without logic, knowledge, skills. The only question is how strong the feeling is, whether it goes beyond the limits of optimism, which ensures reasonable thinking.

In thinking processes, emotions are especially expressed when a person finds a solution to a difficult problem; here they perform a heuristic and regulatory function. The heuristic function of emotions is to highlight (emotional, signal fixation) a certain zone of optimal search, within which the desired solution to the problem is located. The regulatory function of emotions is manifested in the fact that they are able to activate the search for the desired solution if it is carried out correctly, and slow it down if intuition suggests that the chosen course of thought is wrong.

1.4.Main phases of the thought process

In order to talk about ways of developing thinking, it is necessary to understand what stages the thought process goes through. In his book “Fundamentals of General Psychology,” L. S. Rubinstein identifies several main stages of the thought process.

Initial phase: clear awareness of the problem situation. It may begin with a sense of surprise. Plato spoke about this: “All knowledge begins with wonder.” Surprise can be caused by a situation that gives the impression of extraordinaryness. The formulation of the problem itself is an act of thinking, which often requires large and complex mental work. The first sign of a thinking person is the ability to see problems where they exist.

From awareness of the problem, thought moves to its solution.

The solution to a problem is accomplished in various and very diverse ways - depending, first of all, on the nature of the problem itself. There are tasks for which all the data are contained in the visual content of the problem situation itself. ... Problem solving, which is the goal of thinking processes, requires, for the most part, the use of theoretical knowledge as prerequisites, the generalized content of which goes far beyond the visual situation.

In practice, when solving a problem according to one rule or another, very often they do not think about the rule at all, do not realize and do not formulate it, at least mentally, as they used to, but use a completely automatically established method. In the real thinking process, which is a very complex and multifaceted activity, automated action patterns - specific thinking “skills” - often play a very significant role. ... Formulated in the form of rules, positions of thought and automated patterns of action are not only opposite, but also interconnected. The role of skills and automated action patterns in the real thought process is especially great in those areas where there is a very generalized rational system of knowledge. For example, the role of automated action patterns in solving mathematical problems is very significant.

The degree of criticality of the mind varies greatly from person to person. Criticality is an essential sign of a mature mind. An uncritical naive mind easily accepts any coincidence as an explanation, the first solution that comes along as the final one. The critical mind carefully weighs all the arguments for and against its hypotheses and subjects them to comprehensive testing.

When this check ends, the thought process comes to the final phase - to the final judgment within the limits of a given thought process on a given issue, fixing the solution to the problem achieved in it. The result of the mental work then descends more or less directly into practice. It subjects it to a decisive test and sets new tasks for thought - development, clarification, correction or change of the initially adopted solution to the problem.

1.5.Types of thinking

There are several types of thinking. Thinking develops differently depending on what type it belongs to. S. L. Rubinstein and R. S. Nemov describe in detail the main types of thinking.

Human thinking includes mental operations of various types and levels. First of all, their cognitive meaning can be very different. Thus, obviously, the elementary act of thought, through which a child resolves the difficulties that confront him, and the system of mental operations, through which a scientist resolves a scientific problem about the laws of the flow of any complex processes, are unequal in cognitive terms. It is thus possible to distinguish different levels of thought depending on how high the level of its generalizations is, how deeply at the same time it moves from phenomenon to essence, from one definition of essence to an ever deeper definition of it. These different levels of thinking are visual thinking in its elementary forms and abstract, theoretical thinking.

The main types of thinking are classified as follows:

Figure 1 Types of thinking.

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. He discusses and searches for a solution to a problem from the very beginning to the very end in his mind, using ready-made knowledge expressed in concepts, judgments, and conclusions.

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 ideas and images. They are either directly formed during the perception of reality, or are extracted from memory. In the course of solving a problem, these images are mentally transformed so that a person in a new situation can directly see the solution to the problem that interests him. Imaginative thinking is a type of mental activity that is most often found in the work of writers, artists, and performers.

Both types of thinking considered - theoretical, conceptual and figurative - actually coexist, but are expressed to varying degrees. They complement each other well. 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 the objective-conceptual one. Without one or another type of thinking, our perception of reality would not be as deep and versatile, accurate and rich in various shades as it actually is.

A distinctive feature of visual-figurative thinking 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 represented in short-term and operative memory. 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.

The peculiarity of visual-effective thinking is that the process of such thinking itself is a practical transformative activity carried out by a person with real objects. This type of thinking is widely represented among people in mass working professions, engaged in real productive work, the result of which is the creation of any specific material product.

The difference between theoretical and practical types of thinking, according to B.M. Teplov, is that “they are differently related to practice... The work of practical thinking is mainly aimed at solving particular specific problems... while the work of theoretical thinking is aimed mainly at finding general patterns.”

Both theoretical and practical thinking are ultimately connected with practice, but in the case of practical thinking this connection is more direct and immediate.

All of the listed types of thinking 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.

S. L. Rubinstein also talks about the genetic stages of thinking.

In genetic terms, in relation to the early stages of development, we can speak of visual-effective thinking as a special degree in its development, meaning the period when thinking was woven into the material practical activity of people and had not yet emerged into theoretical activity.

Thinking, being formed primarily in an effective way, only at subsequent stages of development is distinguished from practical activity as an independent theoretical activity.

There is no doubt that the genetically primary intellectual operation was rational action, based on visual thinking - visual-effective (or “sensorimotor”) thinking, more precisely, it was visual-situational thinking, directly included in practical action.

Only then, on the basis of social practice, did theoretical thinking and higher types of visual-figurative thinking develop. Moreover, with the development of higher types, in particular theoretical thinking, genetically earlier types of visual thinking are not supplanted, but are transformed, moving to their highest forms. The development of thinking does not boil down to the fact that genetically later and more complex types of thinking are built on top of genetically earlier primitive types of thinking. Due to the inextricable internal connection of all aspects of thinking among themselves, the personality and its consciousness as a whole, genetically earlier species rise to a higher level. This applies, in particular, to visual-situational thinking included in a practical situation. ... It is not thinking in itself that develops, but a person, and as he rises to a higher level, all aspects of his consciousness, all aspects of his thinking rise to a higher level.

2. Ways to develop thinking

2.1. Concepts of thinking development

In his book “Psychology” R. S. Nemov describes in sufficient detail different approaches to the development of thinking. He begins the chapter “Development of Thinking” with the fact that “A person’s thinking develops, his intellectual abilities improve.”

Let us now consider the most well-known theories that explain the thinking process. These concepts can be divided into two large groups: those that are based on the hypothesis that a person has natural intellectual abilities that do not change under the influence of life experience, and those that are based on the idea that mental abilities are mainly formed and developed during life. . Let us present the features of both groups of concepts.

1. Concepts according to which 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 believed that the corresponding intellectual structures exist in a person from birth in a potentially ready-made form, gradually manifesting (developing) as the organism matures. This idea of ​​a priori existing intellectual abilities is characteristic of much of the work in the field of thinking carried out in the German school of psychology. It is most clearly represented in the Gestalt theory of thinking, according to which the ability to form and transform structures, to see them in reality is the basis of intelligence.

2. In contrast, genetic concepts of intelligence presuppose the recognition of the innateness of mental abilities, the possibility and necessity of their lifetime development. Genetic concepts explain thinking based on the influences of the external environment, from the idea of ​​the subject’s own, internal development, or the interaction of both.

A.N. Leontyev, emphasizing the derivative nature of the highest forms of human thinking from culture and the possibility of its development under the influence of social experience, wrote: “Human thinking does not exist outside of society, outside of language, outside of the knowledge accumulated by mankind and the methods of mental activity developed by it: logical, mathematical, etc. actions and operations... An individual becomes a subject of thinking only by mastering language, concepts, and logic.” He proposed a concept of thinking according to which there are relations of analogy between the structures of external and internal activity. Internal, mental activity is not only derived from external, practical activity, but has fundamentally the same structure. “As in practical activity, in mental activity individual actions can be distinguished, subordinate to specific conscious goals... Like practical action, every internal, mental action is carried out in one way or another, that is, through certain operations.” At the same time, external and internal elements of activity are interchangeable. The structure of mental, theoretical activity may include external, practical actions, and, conversely, the structure of practical activity may include internal, mental operations and actions.

The activity theory of thinking contributed to the solution of many practical problems related to the learning and mental development of children. On its basis, such theories of learning were built (they can also be considered as theories of the development of thinking) as the theory of P. Ya. Galperin, the theory of L. V. Zankov, the theory of V. V. Davydov. It also underlies many of the latest studies by domestic psychologists.

2.2. Connection of thinking with memory, sensations, perception

Thinking is closely connected with memory, with the possession of a certain stock of knowledge. Attempting to develop your mind without acquiring knowledge is fruitless. There are people who willingly talk about subjects that they do not know, but sooner or later such people are exposed, and their thinking, their evidence without specific knowledge turns out to be empty words. The importance of thinking for memory was determined, expressed in the organization of memorization, in the comprehension of the material being memorized. There is a connection between thinking and imagination . Any planning requires the joint work of thinking and imagination, since it is necessary to some extent imagine with the help of imagination what is planned and planned to be implemented. Creative activity is productive if it has sufficient flight of imagination, regulated by thought.

Cognitive activity begins with sensations and perceptions. Any, even the most developed, thinking always maintains a connection with sensory knowledge, i.e. with sensations, perceptions and ideas. Mental activity receives all its material from only one source - from sensory knowledge. Through sensations and perceptions, thinking is directly connected with the outside world and is its reflection. The correctness (adequacy) of this reflection is continuously verified in the process of practical transformation of nature and society.

In the process of thinking, using the data of sensations, perceptions and ideas, a person at the same time goes beyond the limits of sensory knowledge, i.e. begins to cognize such phenomena of the external world, their properties and relationships, which are not directly given in perceptions and therefore are not directly observable at all. Thus, thinking begins where sensory knowledge is no longer sufficient or even powerless.

2.3. The relationship between thinking and speech

For human mental activity, its relationship is essential not only with sensory cognition, but also with language and speech. This reveals one of the fundamental differences between the human psyche and the psyche of animals. The elementary, simplest thinking of animals always remains only visually effective; it cannot be abstract, mediated by knowledge. It deals only with directly perceived objects that are currently in front of the animal’s eyes. Such primitive thinking operates with objects in a visually effective way and does not go beyond its limits.

Only with the advent of speech does it become possible to abstract one or another of its properties from a cognizable object and consolidate, fix the idea or concept of it in a special word. A thought acquires in a word the necessary material shell, in which it only becomes an immediate reality for other people and for ourselves. Human thinking - no matter what forms it takes - is impossible without language. Every thought arises and develops in inextricable connection with speech. The deeper and more thoroughly thought out this or that thought, the more clearly and clearly it is expressed in words, in oral and written speech. And vice versa, the more the verbal formulation of a thought is improved and honed, the clearer and more understandable this thought itself becomes.

The word, the formation of thought, contains the most important necessary prerequisites for the discursive, i.e. reasoning, logically dissected and conscious thinking. Thanks to the formulation and consolidation in the word, the thought does not disappear or fade away, barely having time to arise. It is firmly fixed in speech formulation - oral or even written. Therefore, there is always the opportunity, if necessary, to return to this thought again, think it over even more deeply, check it and, in the course of reasoning, correlate it with other thoughts. The formulation of thoughts in the speech process is the most important condition for their formation. So-called inner speech can also play a large role in this process.

In the wonderful book “A Word about Words,” L. Uspensky writes: “From early childhood to very old age, a person’s entire life is inextricably linked with language. The child has not yet learned how to speak, but his clear ear already catches the murmur of grandmother's fairy tales. A teenager goes to school. A young man goes to college or university. A whole sea of ​​words, a noisy ocean of speech, catches him there, behind the wide doors. Through the lively conversations of teachers, through the pages of hundreds of books, for the first time he sees an immensely complex universe reflected in words. The new person is related to ancient thoughts, with those that formed in the heads of people thousands of years before his birth. He himself gains the opportunity to address his great-grandchildren who will live centuries after his death. And all this is only thanks to language.”

Thus, human thinking is inextricably linked with language, with speech. Thinking necessarily exists in a material, verbal shell.

2.4.Motivation of thinking

Analysis and synthesis, in general the activity of thinking, like any other activity, is always caused by some needs of the individual. If there are no needs, there is no activity that they could cause.

Studying thinking, like any other mental process, psychological science takes into account and, to one degree or another, specifically examines exactly what needs and motives forced a given person to engage in cognitive activity and under what specific circumstances the need for analysis, synthesis, etc. arose. d. What thinks, thinks, is not “pure” thinking itself, not the thought process itself as such, but a person, an individual, a personality with certain abilities, feelings and needs. The inextricable connection of mental activity with needs clearly reveals the most important fact that any thinking is always the thinking of the individual in all the richness of his relationships with nature, society, and other people. The motives of thinking studied in psychology are of two types: 1) specifically cognitive and 2) nonspecific. In the first case, the stimulants and driving forces of mental activity are interests and motives in which cognitive needs (curiosity, etc.) are manifested. In the second case, thinking begins under the influence of more or less external causes, and not purely cognitive interests.

Thus, a person begins to think under the influence of certain needs, and in the course of his mental activity, increasingly deeper and stronger cognitive needs arise and develop.

The need for thinking arises primarily when, in the course of life and practice, a new goal, a new problem, new circumstances and conditions of activity appear before a person. By its very essence, thinking is necessary only in those situations in which these new goals arise, and the old, previous means and methods of activity are insufficient (although necessary) to achieve them. Such situations are called problematic. With the help of mental activity, originating in a problem situation, it is possible to create, discover, find, and invent new ways and means of achieving goals and satisfying needs.

Thinking is the search and discovery of something new. In those cases where you can get by with old, already known methods of action, previous knowledge and skills, a problem situation does not arise and therefore thinking is simply not required. Not every situation in life is problematic, i.e. provoking thinking.

It is necessary to distinguish between a problem situation and a task. A problematic situation is a vague, not yet very clear and little-conscious impression, as if signaling: “something is wrong,” “something is not right.” It is in these kinds of problematic situations that the thinking process begins. It begins with an analysis of this problematic situation itself. As a result of its analysis, a task arises and is formulated, a problem in the proper sense of the word.

The emergence of a task - in contrast to a problem situation - means that it has now been possible to at least preliminary and approximately separate the given (known) and the unknown (sought). In the course of solving the problem, i.e. As more and more new and more essential conditions and requirements are revealed, what is being sought is increasingly determined. Its characteristics are becoming more meaningful and clear. The final solution to the problem means that what is being sought is identified, found, and fully defined. If the unknown were completely and completely defined already in the initial formulation of the problem, i.e. in the formulation of its initial conditions and requirements, then there would be no need to look for it. And vice versa, if there were no initial formulation of the problem, outlining in which area the unknown should be looked for, i.e. minimally anticipating what is being sought, then the latter would simply be impossible to find. There would be no preliminary data, clues or outlines for his search. A problematic situation would generate nothing but a painful feeling of bewilderment and confusion.

In order to better understand the basic mechanisms of the thought process, consider the following three mutually opposing points of view on the mental anticipation of the unknown, which are expressed in psychology. Depending on different views on the thinking process, psychologists offer different ways to shape students’ thinking while solving problems.

The first point of view is based on the fact that each previous stage (“step”) of the cognitive process gives rise to the immediately following one. This thesis is correct, but insufficient. In fact, in the course of thinking, at least a minimal anticipation of what is being sought is carried out more than one “step” forward. Therefore, everything cannot be reduced only to the relationship between the previous and immediately following stages. In other words, one should not underestimate or downplay the degree and volume of mental anticipation in the course of solving a problem.

The second, opposite point of view, on the contrary, exaggerates, absolutizes, overestimates the moment of anticipation of a still unknown decision, i.e. a result (product) that has not yet been identified and has not yet been achieved in the course of thinking. Anticipation - always only partial and approximate - immediately turns here into a ready and complete definition of such a result (decision).

Both of these considered points of view recognize the presence of mental anticipation in the process of searching for the unknown, although the first of them underestimates, and the second exaggerates, the role of such anticipation. The third point of view, on the contrary, completely denies anticipation in the course of solving a problem.

The third point of view has become very widespread in connection with the development of the cybernetic approach to thinking. It consists of the following: in the course of the thought process, it is necessary to sort through (remember, take into account, try to use) one after another all, many or some signs of the corresponding object associated with it general provisions, theorems, solutions, etc. and as a result, select from them only what is necessary for the solution. In the end, one of them may turn out to be suitable for this case.

In fact, as special psychological experiments have shown, thinking never works in such a blind, random, mechanical search of all or some possible solution options. In the course of thinking, it is anticipated, at least to a minimal extent, which specific feature of the object under consideration will be isolated, analyzed and generalized. Not just any, no matter what, but only a certain property of the object comes to the fore and is used for the solution. The remaining properties are simply not noticed and disappear from sight. This manifests direction, selectivity, and determinism of thinking. Consequently, even the minimal, most approximate and very preliminary anticipation of the unknown in the process of searching for it makes a blind, mechanical search of all or many properties of the object under consideration unnecessary.

That is why it is important to find out how, in the course of cognitive activity, a person mentally anticipates the unknown. This is one of the central problems of the psychology of thinking. In the process of its development, psychological science overcomes the considered three erroneous points of view on mental anticipation of the unknown. Solving this problem means revealing the basic mechanism of thinking.

The unknown (the sought-after) is not some kind of “absolute emptiness” with which it is generally impossible to operate. It is always, in one way or another, connected with something known, given. In any problem, as already noted, something is always known (initial conditions and requirements, the question of the problem). Based on the connections and relationships between the known and the unknown, it becomes possible to search and find something new, previously hidden, unknown. Any object reveals its inherent signs, properties, qualities, etc. in their relationships with other objects, things, processes. The discovery and cognition of something new in an object (subject) would be impossible without including it in new connections with other objects (subjects). Consequently, to understand an object in its new, as yet unknown properties, one must go, first of all, through knowledge of those relationships and interconnections in which these properties are manifested.

Therefore, the most important mechanism of the thought process is as follows. In the process of thinking, an object is included in more and more new connections and, thanks to this, appears in more and more of its properties and qualities, which are fixed in new concepts; Thus, all new content is drawn out of the object; it seems to turn every time with its other side, new properties are revealed in it.

This mechanism of thinking is called analysis through synthesis, since the selection (analysis) of new properties in an object is accomplished through the correlation (synthesis) of the object under study with other objects, i.e. through its inclusion in new connections with other objects.

Only as people reveal the system of connections and relationships in which the analyzed object is located, they begin to notice, discover and analyze new, still unknown signs of this object. And vice versa, until a person begins to reveal the system of such connections himself, he will not pay any attention to a new property that is necessary for the solution, even if this property is suggested by direct indication.

A random hint often contributes to discoveries and inventions. However, the use of such a hint reveals the above-mentioned pattern of the thought process. A “happy” chance will be noticed and used only by the person who thinks hard about the problem being solved. The whole point is how prepared the soil is, in general the system of internal conditions, which is affected by this or that external cue. Here, as elsewhere, external causes act only through internal conditions.

Generalization and its result - transfer - depend primarily on the inclusion of both tasks in a single process of analytical-synthetic activity. The very course of generalization (and transfer) is determined by at what stages of analysis - early or late - the correlation between the task and the hint is made.

2.5. Thinking when solving problems

As already noted, mental activity is necessary not only for solving already set, formulated problems (for example, school-type ones). It is also necessary for setting tasks itself, for identifying and understanding new problems. Often, finding and posing a problem requires even more mental effort than its subsequent resolution. Thinking is also necessary for the assimilation of knowledge, for understanding the text during reading and in many other cases, which are by no means identical to solving problems.

2.6.Individual characteristics of thinking

Individual characteristics of thinking in different people are manifested primarily in the fact that they have different relationships between different and complementary types and forms of mental activity (visual-figurative, visual-effective and abstract thinking). Individual characteristics of thinking also include other qualities of cognitive activity: independence, flexibility, speed of thought.

Independence of thinking is manifested primarily in the ability to see and pose a new question, a new problem and then solve them on one’s own. The creative nature of thinking is clearly expressed precisely in such independence.

Flexibility of thinking lies in the ability to change the initially planned path (plan) for solving problems if it does not satisfy the conditions of the problem that are gradually identified in the course of its solution and which could not be taken into account from the very beginning.

Speed ​​of thought is especially necessary in cases where a person is required to make certain decisions in a very short time (for example, during a battle, an accident).

Depth of thought is the ability to penetrate into the essence of the most difficult issues of theory and practice, to understand them, to understand the causes of phenomena, and to foresee the further course of events. The quality opposite to the depth of the mind is the surface of judgments and conclusions, when a person pays attention to the little things and does not see the main thing;

Breadth of thought lies in the ability to cover the issue as a whole.

Flexibility of mind - the ability to revise one’s conclusions and decisions depending on changing conditions, the absence of cliches in solving a problem, or preconceived opinions. People are not distinguished by this quality, they know how to think and act only according to a template, show inertia of thought, and are afraid of new things;

Criticality of the mind is the ability not to take any position on faith (both one’s own and someone else’s), but to subject it to critical consideration, weigh all the arguments for and against it, and only after that agree with a certain position or reject it.

All of the listed and many other qualities of thinking are closely related to its main quality, or attribute. The most important feature of any thinking - regardless of its individual individual characteristics - is the ability to highlight the essential and independently come to ever new generalizations. When a person thinks, he is not limited to stating this or that individual fact or event, even bright, interesting, new and unexpected. Thinking necessarily goes further, delving into the essence of a given phenomenon and discovering the general law of development of all more or less homogeneous phenomena, no matter how outwardly they differ from each other.

There are individually unique types of thinking. One of the classifications of people’s mental activity was proposed by K. Jung. He identified the following types of people according to the nature of their thinking:

    Intuitive type. Characterized by the predominance of emotions over logic and the dominance of the right hemisphere of the brain over the left.

    Thinking type. He is characterized by rationality and the predominance of the left hemisphere over the right, the primacy of logic over intuition and feeling.

Creative (productive) thinking is aimed at creating new people, discovering something new or improving the solution to a particular problem. All creative tasks have one feature: the need to use an unconventional way of thinking, an unusual vision of the problem, and going beyond the usual way of reasoning.

When solving creative problems, it is necessary to direct thought in an unusual way. Apply a creative way of solving (scientists made a special contribution to the study of creative thinking: J. Guilford, G. Lindsay, K. Hull and R. Thompson.).

There are two competing ways of thinking: critical and creative. Critical thinking is aimed at identifying flaws in the judgment of other people. Creative thinking is associated with the discovery of fundamentally new knowledge, with the generation of one’s own original ideas, and not with evaluating the thoughts of others. To smooth out this competition, it is necessary to develop both critical and creative thinking in a child from childhood.

The concept of intelligence is inextricably linked with the concept of creativity. . It is understood as a set of the most general mental abilities that provide a person with success in solving various problems.

2.7.Formation of thinking

A child is born without thinking. In order to think, it is necessary to have some sensory and practical experience, fixed in memory. By the end of the first year of life, manifestations of elementary thinking can be observed in the child.

The main condition for the development of children's thinking is their purposeful upbringing and training. In the process of upbringing, the child masters objective actions and speech, learns to independently solve first simple, then complex problems, as well as understand the requirements made by adults and act in accordance with them.

The development of thinking is expressed in the gradual expansion of the content of thought, in the consistent emergence of forms and methods of mental activity and their change as the overall formation of the personality occurs. At the same time, the child’s motivation for mental activity—cognitive interests—increases.

Thinking develops throughout a person’s life in the process of his activity. At each age stage, thinking has its own characteristics.

Conclusion

Based on this work, one can trace the development of ideas about thinking, the formation of theories of thinking, and consider their contradictions. Many philosophers, scientists, and psychologists have contributed to the study of this problem, revealing the features and patterns of the process of development of thinking. Each generation of scientists discovered new features, previously unknown criteria for the development of thinking. However, the theoretical study of thinking has gone far ahead in comparison with the practical, experimental one. There are still many incompletely explored thinking processes that need to be developed. This will make it possible to invent new methods, develop new techniques to prevent disorders in the development of thinking and restore already impaired functions of the thought process.

To achieve this goal, we used the following theoretical tasks:

    Summarize the material about types of thinking.

    Consider thinking as one of the main cognitive processes.

Intellectual activity is based on specific mental operations of analysis and synthesis, classification, generalization, analogies, comparisons, subsuming concepts, establishing cause-and-effect relationships, etc. Although thinking is not limited to logic, it nevertheless operates with logical categories, connections and relationships. To perform logical actions, it is necessary to distinguish essential from non-essential properties of objects and phenomena, identify necessary and sufficient signs, choose grounds for comparison or classification, and master logical-functional relationships of various types.

Literature

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    S. L. Rubinstein. Fundamentals of general psychology. – St. Petersburg: Peter, 2008.

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    P. P. Blonsky. Selected psychological works. – M.: 1964.

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    L. Levy-Bruhl. Primitive thinking. - M.-Ya.: 1932.

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  • Basic types of thinking
    • Abstract thinking
    • Creative thinking
    • Creative thinking
    • Logical thinking

Thinking is an integral part of human activity, a tool for cognition and analysis of reality. Without it, there would be no modern humanity and our entire civilization, because active and conscious thinking is the main thing that distinguishes humans from other animals.

Thinking has a huge number of definitions. Here is one of them:

Thinking is the process of receiving data from the external world using the senses, as well as their subsequent processing and use; This is the establishment of relationships between surrounding objects and the determination of their influence on a person. The main task of thinking is to solve a wide range of problems and tasks that a person faces.

First of all, thinking is the main tool for human survival. We do not have teeth, claws or warm fur, but we have gone far ahead in matters of preserving the species, since thinking provides much more opportunities to overcome life's challenges than the physical strength and endurance of a wild animal.

Thinking is a feature of the human psyche that we acquired in the process of evolution. But the catch is that evolutionarily we have only the ability to think, which we must consciously implement. Developed thinking gives a person the opportunity not only to survive, but also to live in comfort: to have more money and power, to improve relationships with others, to get everything necessary from life.

The development of thinking is an act of will, which we can carry out or not carry out. It is advisable to train thinking from childhood. In families where parents have a low level of intelligence, an ossified worldview and a lack of creative thinking, the same children often grow up. If a child is placed at an early age in a family where it is customary to engage in self-education and actively use his mental abilities, he will most likely show good results in his studies and be more successful in life. There are also many cases where a smart person stopped doing work that required constant mental effort, and after a few years he degenerated. Even if your parents did not develop your thinking from early childhood, you can start (or continue) at any age. Let's talk about how to develop thinking.

The level of development of thinking is related to speech. A highly developed person always has a large vocabulary and competent sentence construction; a primitive individual who is not used to thinking makes do with a minimal set of words and phrases and often finds it difficult to express thoughts. It has been noticed that with increased development of speech, an improvement in thought processes immediately appears, and vice versa - smart people are good speakers. Read and train your oratory skills - this is the first universal advice for developing thinking.

There is a whole range of special practices and exercises for thinking, but the main thing that needs to be done is to constantly load the brain. Just as muscles atrophy without constant work, so does the sharpness of the mind, which is not strained by any tasks, weaken.

Basic types of thinking

Let's look at the main types of thinking, how they are characterized and how to develop each of them.

  • Abstract thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Logical thinking

Many types of thinking are interconnected, so it makes sense to develop them all. And yet, depending on a person’s sphere of activity, 1-2 types of thinking will always be a priority. For example, an abstract artist will have well-developed abstract and figurative thinking, a mathematician or physicist will have logical thinking, a person of any creative profession will have creative and figurative thinking.

Abstract thinking

Abstract thinking allows us to see a set of objects, phenomena and properties as one whole object. This is necessary so that we can see the big picture, without being distracted by small details, and through this vision find non-standard ways to solve problems, constantly expanding the scope of knowledge.

It is interesting that animals in primitive forms have the rudiments of thinking: they are able to understand cause-and-effect relationships, are capable of learning and simple logical operations. But abstract thinking is inherent only in humans.

Let's look at some examples. For a dog, the leaves on a tree will always be just leaves, the river will remain a stream of water, the birds will remain birds, and the earth will remain a place in which to bury a bone. Man will generalize the totality of all these objects into the concept of “nature”. A cat can rub against the legs, meet the owner at the threshold and sleep at his feet, but only a person would call all this with the words “love” and “affection.”

Creative thinking

Creative thinking is aimed at creating a new useful result from known premises. Using existing data, we can construct from it intellectual, cultural and material objects that did not exist before.

As you can see, the emphasis here is on using already known data, and this point is made for good reason. A person can create a new product only based on the experience and knowledge gained. Therefore, most often we are guided by examples from the surrounding nature: shape, color and sound are drawn from what we see and hear.

Creative thinking

Imaginative thinking is characterized by the creation of holistic images based on the information received. Most often these are visual images. For example, you are reading a book and clearly see the hero before your eyes. Or, having heard a familiar smell, you immediately imagine a picture associated with it - a person’s face, a place, an event.

Imaginative thinking is one of the important tools for developing speech skills, since each word has a specific image attached to it. It helps us recognize familiar objects; it is necessary in the process of learning, memorizing information and building a conceptual base.

Logical thinking

Logical thinking is probably one of the most important types of thinking. Possessing undeveloped creative or abstract thinking, a person is doomed to a meager emotional and intellectual life. But the underdevelopment of logical thinking can threaten mental health and even our very existence. We are not talking about “absence”, but about “underdevelopment,” since there is not a single person who does not have one or another type of thinking at all.

Logical thinking is a process aimed at obtaining reasonable conclusions using logical rules, formulas, structures and algorithms. Logic is a science similar to mathematics - it is also based on a clear evidence base and axioms.

There are a number of logical rules, without the knowledge of which we simply could not survive:

  • Cause-and-effect relationship (one of the tribe members grabbed a snake with his bare hands, it bit him, and he died - which means the rest should not do this).
  • An algorithm of actions aimed at a specific result (to catch a deer while hunting, you need to make a weapon, go into the forest, track the deer, kill it and bring it to the tribe).
  • Inductive and deductive methods (if it starts to get colder and the days get shorter, autumn has come; autumn has come, it will be cold and rainy).
  • One-way direction of time from the past to the future (after autumn there will be winter - you need to stock up on firewood, food and warm clothes).
  • Interaction of objects in shape and size (a person can hide in a shelter that is larger than him in size).

Here are simple examples of the use of logical constructs in the lives of our ancestors to show how they influenced our evolution. Of course, in the modern world they are much more complicated.

Logical thinking helps, first of all, to form tactics and strategies for your life, understand the consequences of your actions, and not make stupid mistakes.

How to develop logical thinking

All types of thinking are developed in the same way as physical data - through training.

In order to develop logic, you need to do certain exercises:

  1. Solving riddles, puzzles and mental problems.
  2. Mind games such as chess, poker or strategy.
  3. Reading detective stories, good fiction and educational books.
  4. Collecting puzzles, Rubik's cubes, wooden puzzles.
  5. Retelling the text you read in your own phrases.
  6. Game of analogies, associations, “crocodile”.
  7. Inventing absurd situations and phenomena that contradict the laws of logic (they can be written in the form of poems or stories).

To achieve success in life, you need to constantly develop. Geniuses and simply successful people differ from ordinary people only in that they constantly train and develop their thinking.

On the Internet you can find many online simulators that promote the development of thinking, attention and memory, for example brain trainers Vikium. They will help not only develop logical thinking, but also teach you to better concentrate on tasks and remember large amounts of information.

Thinking- a tool that every person has who solves various problems in life. Thinking can be developed, its speed, depth, freedom, and meaningfulness can be changed. Also, thinking can become more interesting and positive.

Development of logical thinking

Logical thinking very useful for every person. It will facilitate the understanding of any laws in science or society. Logic is often needed in everyday life.

The brain needs constant training to maintain its mental activity, to have good thinking and memory. Regular exercise can improve your thinking skills.

Have fun with benefits

  1. Start solving logic puzzles for children and adults (puzzles, find 10 differences, attention riddles).
  2. Find games that develop attention and logic that you can play with friends and no matter how old you are, it will be fun and have a good time with friends.
  3. Use IQ tests. There are interesting tasks that require quite a bit of logical thinking. Although there are many others besides IQ tests.

Educate yourself

For example, you can start with the mega-useful course “Money and the Millionaire Mindset.”

Development of critical thinking

Critical thinking is a step towards active, creative methods. What is critical thinking?

  1. Thinking is independent, and the owner puts his own ideas, evaluates the situation, has his own beliefs independently of others.
  2. Receiving information is just the beginning, and the end will be processing, that is. generating a complex thought as a conclusion. Another thought is subjected to critical reflection.
  3. This kind of thinking starts with asking questions and identifying problems.
  4. Critical thinking is convincing arguments, evidence, conclusion.
  5. This kind of thinking helps to exchange opinions and points of view.

How to develop critical thinking?

  1. Evaluate reality. Reality is a world independent of your desires. Your thinking will be most effective if you learn to understand and “translate” this reality.
  2. Mass hobbies. A concept becomes popular, a large number of people accept it, that is, they create a crowd. And there can be no talk of critical thinking there, but only of consistency. Think before you join.
  3. Draw parallels between observation and inference.
  4. Don't judge a situation or person until you are sure of your information.
  5. Don't lose your sense of humor.
  6. Be curious. There are many unknown, interesting, shocking things in the world. Having curiosity indicates intelligence. A curious person looks for new ways, ways to solve problems, for example, which gives him new opportunities.
  7. Do not give free rein to your emotions, because they can cloud your mind. A striking example is anger, under the influence of which you can do things that you will regret.
  8. Don't overestimate your self-esteem.
  9. Learn to listen to people.
  10. Use your intuition, don't ignore it. Because such thoughts may come to your mind on a subconscious level. This is the result of information that was once received, which you probably no longer remember.

Tasks for the development of thinking

1) What number is hidden under the car?

2) Find the extra figure. Only 15% of people can cope with this task.

3) Where is the bus going?

1. 87, just turn the photo over.
2. The answer is -1, because it is the standard, because the rest of the figures are modifications of it, either the shape, or the color, or the frame has been changed.
3. Even though the bus is moving forward and moving on the right side, as is customary, it is moving to the left. Because the door is not visible.

Development of speed reading

Reading quickly will always allow you to read more interesting and useful books, as well as excellent will develop thinking. Sign up for our Speed ​​Reading course in 30 days. We will teach you not only to read faster, but also to think faster, understand and remember text, as these are the basic requirements for the reading process.

Verbal counting

Learn to quickly and correctly add, subtract, multiply, divide, square numbers, and even extract roots. I will teach you how to use easy techniques to simplify arithmetic operations. Each lesson contains new techniques, clear examples and useful tasks.

Money and the Millionaire Mindset

Knowledge of the psychology of money and how to work with it makes a person a millionaire. 80% of people take out more loans as their income increases, becoming even poorer. On the other hand, self-made millionaires will earn millions again in 3-5 years if they start from scratch. This course teaches you how to properly distribute income and reduce expenses, motivates you to study and achieve goals, teaches you how to invest money and recognize a scam.

Development of creative thinking

Creative thinking is thinking in which the owner finds unusual, improved or shorter, better solutions. Creative thinking will allow you to generate new ideas.

Creative thinking will give you the opportunity to try your hand at art. You might be able to find yourself in music or drawing, poetry or something unusual. For example, creating sculptures from scrap materials and so on.

We offer several interesting exercises for developing creative thinking:

  1. Find a drama or horror film and remake it as a comedy.
  2. Also try the opposite. Turn the comedy into a drama.
  3. Come up with a script for the film. Take 2-3 pairs of people who have disagreements with each other and develop this plot.
  4. Imagine any person or animal or object that could become a serial killer.

In this way, scripts for films and books can appear. And the process of such a game itself will be fun for you and the circle of people with whom you will try to discuss it. This exercise is more interesting to perform in the company of friends and acquaintances.

Development of thinking in children

The mental activity of a child has a special structure of cognition. When a baby is born, he begins to study everything around him, draw parallels, and look for connections between his discoveries. Gradually developing, the child begins to reason, imagine, a fantasy world appears, and speech not only appears, but also becomes more literate over time.

Anagrams

Gorbov-Schulte tables

Color matrix game

The “color matrix” game will be an excellent trainer for your thinking. A field of cells will open in front of you, each of which will be painted in one of two colors.

Your aim: determine which color is greater. The game, of course, is for a while and therefore you have to try. As the game progresses, the field will expand if the answers are correct or narrow if the answers are incorrect.

Game "Quick Count"

The game "quick count" will help you improve your thinking. The essence of the game is that in the picture presented to you, you will need to choose the answer “yes” or “no” to the question “are there 5 identical fruits?” Follow your goal, and this game will help you with this.

Game "Simplification"

The game “Simplification” is a wonderful simulator, not only for mental arithmetic, but also for logic. You will come across examples both simple and complex. But not everything is so complicated in reality, you just need to figure out how to simplify or find the answer from the proposed answers. To do this, you will have to think logically!

Game "Number Reach: Revolution"

An interesting and useful game “Numerical Reach: Revolution” that will help you improve and develop memory. The essence of the game is that the monitor will display numbers in order, one at a time, which you should remember and then reproduce. Such chains will consist of 4, 5 and even 6 digits. Time is limited. How many points can you score in this game?

Game "Memory Matrix"

"Memory Matrices" is a great game for training and developing memory. In the presented game you will need to remember the placement of the colored cells, and then reproduce them from memory. How many levels can you complete? Remember, time is limited!

Lessons in the development of thinking

A good exercise for creativity, as you finally fill out the field, you will understand how highly developed your thinking is. Below you will see a field of crosses. Your goal is to add a picture to each cross. Thinking, creativity and imagination come into play:

When you fill it out, pay attention to this picture (below), maybe you will find some drawing from the ones you just drew.

Also try a field not with crosses, but with other figures or, simply, with a different blank. These can be triangles, circles, squares, and so on. For example:

And another example:

Exercise - Architect

Imagine that you are an architect. Your goal is to design a house. It doesn’t matter whether you can draw or not, whether you can draw, it doesn’t matter. The essence is completely different and no less interesting. Place a piece of paper in front of you and write ten nouns on it. They can be absolutely anything: Orange, water, tomato, cloud, smoke, and so on... Then the fun begins. These ten words become the customer's terms and conditions. If it's orange, then you can paint the roof of the house orange. Water? Make a river behind the house. Tomato? Paint the floors in your house red. Here your imagination and thinking are unleashed. Try to make it as interesting as possible, make up words as complex as possible.

Technologies for the development of thinking

The technology for developing critical thinking is presented in three stages:

1. Challenge. A gap is sought in previously acquired knowledge or experience, which is now the goal of elimination. That is, a goal is set to close this knowledge gap.

2. Understanding. A person who has a serious goal of developing critical thinking must realize that it is necessary to keep a diary and draw tables in order to determine the level of understanding of a certain topic or information.

3. Reflection. At the stage of reflection, a person forms his attitude towards the text, information, book, picture. This attitude is often written down or discussed with someone. This method will help not only in developing critical thinking, but also in developing communication skills.

Development of thinking in children 4-5 years old

There are good exercises for children to help them develop and train their thinking. These are the simplest exercises that will surely help them think and apply thinking to answer the question. If the child finds it difficult, just push him.

Examples of exercises to develop thinking

Exercise 1. The child’s goal is to find the extra word. Below are rows of 4 words, and one of them is extra and your child must determine which one. Ask him the question “why did he choose this word?”

Birch, pine, linden, apple tree.
Bed, table, chest of drawers, spoon.
Oak, chamomile, rose, tulip.
Fork, spoon, chair, knife.
Candy, soup, halva, jam.
Skirt, hat, dress, slippers.
Apple, beets, pears, grapes.

Exercise 2. You come up with a word for the child, and he answers what this person needs from things. It may not be a person at all, but an animal or a bird, and the child names their elements. For example:

Sparrow - branches, grains, puddle.
Doctor - gown, mask, syringe.
Janitor - broom, bucket, rake.
Small baby - rattle, diaper, pacifier.
Dog - booth, bone, leash.
Seller - cash register, goods, calculator.
Bee - flowers, nectar, hive.
Artist - paints, brushes, canvas.
Mother - ...?
And you will learn a lot of interesting things about your status :)

Exercise 3. Name the components of certain items and objects. The task is very difficult. During the exercise, the child’s vocabulary will be replenished, since not all words are known to him yet, and you will help him with this. So:

Car - wheels, body, headlights, steering wheel (let the child name as many elements as possible) ship - ...
airplane - ...
train - ...
bike - ...
trolleybus - ...
table - ...
armchair - ...
book - ...
computer - ...
guitar - ...
piano - ...
drum - ...
house - ...
fence - ...
flower - ...
tree - ...
mushroom - ...
bug - ...
butterfly - ...
dog - ...
Human - ...
apple - ...
watermelon - ...

Development of thinking in children 6-7 years old

Exercise 1: Which vehicle is the odd one out of the four?

Exercise 2: Logical problem. Petya is stronger than Misha, but weaker than Kolya. Which of the guys is the weakest?

Exercise 3: There are three buckets: green, yellow, blue. Grandfather, grandmother and grandson carried water in different buckets (each with its own color). Grandfather's was neither green nor blue. Grandmother's is neither green nor yellow. What was the grandson's?

It would also be helpful to teach your child how to play chess. This game perfectly develops the sense of thinking, logic, mental calculation and many other senses.

For the game “chess” a lot of problems are constantly being written and invented. For example: checkmate in 1 move or checkmate in 2 moves, this can also happen in 4. The problems are very interesting, and being able to solve them means having good thinking.

Development of thinking in children 8-9 years old

The older the child gets, the more difficult the tasks should be for him. Below are exercises that will help your child tense up, think, reflect and give reasons for his answer:

Exercise 1: What can be common and what is the difference between the following pairs of words?

  1. table chair
  2. Bird, plane
  3. Heaven, earth
  4. Day Night
  5. Slide, hole
  6. skis, skates
  7. Tree, bush

Let them explain their position.

Exercise 2: How can you seat 6 children on 2 sofas? How to seat 3 sofas? The answer should be given in numbers, and all possible answer options should be used.

Exercise 3: The child is called a series of words, and the child’s goal is to combine the words into one concept:

  1. perch, crucian carp, pike (fish)
  2. elephant, giraffe, ant (animals)
  3. autumn, summer, winter (seasons)
  4. shovel, rake, broom (tools)
  5. cheese, sour cream, butter (dairy products)
  6. hand, ears, legs (body parts)

Properties of thinking

There are several properties of thinking, which we discussed below:

Speed ​​of thinking

Each person has his own speed of thinking, and therefore each person copes with a task differently. There are techniques for increasing your thinking speed:

  1. Do facial exercises, that is. normal warming up of the facial muscles.
  2. Stop being lethargic, sleepy and with an expressionless face. The more alive you and your facial expressions, the more alive your thinking!
  3. Increase the speed of internal reasoning and thoughts. This will help speed up your thinking.
  4. Try to massage your head regularly. Massage stimulates the blood vessels in the brain, which improves their functioning, and at this moment great thoughts may come to your mind.
  5. Speed ​​reading training. By perceiving text faster, you not only improve your reading speed, but also your thinking speed. Indeed, if you read faster and remember what you read, then your thoughts also speed up.

Meaningful thinking

The most common type of thinking is internal chatter - this is negative thinking, it “seems to fill” the spiritual emptiness, it is an illusion. Such thinking is a problem, an obstacle to concentration on any task. To keep your thinking clear, you need to perform actions with full understanding of them. It is also advisable to write down thoughts, draw, tell stories to friends, acquaintances, and relatives.

    Take Notes and Drawings Get into the habit of expressing your thoughts in writing or drawings. Some people, when explaining or telling something, not only speak, but also draw, that is, they give you a picture and clarify the situation.

    Tell your thoughts It will be useful to express your thoughts to others who will be really interested in it. Telling this to someone will help you get feedback. Another plus is that the more you tell your thoughts, the more clear they will be for you (if there were any points that were not clear).

    DiscussDiscussing thoughts is an effective thing. One head it's good, but two better. The main thing is that the discussion does not turn into a quarrel. If you suddenly do not agree with your interlocutor’s thesis, then make up your own, but do not start a heated argument, but have a calm conversation.

    Watch your speech Thinking and speech are closely related to each other. Therefore, in order to contribute to the development of thinking, it is worth constructing your speech correctly. Advice: exclude the words “problems”, “horror”, “difficult”, include “interesting”, “goal”.

Why are speech and thinking closely related? Thinking is fleeting and difficult to remember, but speech is a different story. Speech is memorable and easier to follow. Do you want to improve your thinking? Pay attention to your speech.

    Pay attention to other people's speech It is easier to monitor someone else's speech than your own. Because someone else’s speech is something new and all the shortcomings and failures in logic can be heard in it. Studying the mistakes of other people's speech will help you find mistakes in your own speech.

    Improve your skills in working with texts Text analysis can be compared to listening to someone else's speech. In both cases, you look for mistakes, roughness and take notes. Improved thinking depends on word processing skills.

Depth and freedom of thinking

People use their thinking in different ways and with varying degrees of freedom. It all depends on the position of perception. Depth and freedom of thinking can be represented in the form of several criteria:

  1. Template thinking, as a rule, this is the view of an egoist: “Forgot - it means he doesn’t respect”, “Didn’t kiss - it means he doesn’t love” and so on.
  2. My interests: Does this concern me and my plans? “I was cooking dinner, but he didn’t distract me - oh well. If I wanted to kiss, then that’s exactly what I wanted, which means I’ll kiss when he comes.”
  3. Interests of loved ones: "He was in such a hurry that he even forgot to kiss me. I love him :)"
  4. Objectivity: “The world is a stream of neutral events, nothing serious happened, it was just in a hurry.”
  5. Systemic view: He ran to work, takes care of us! My love!
  6. Angel Position: My husband works for people, and this is very important. I'm proud of him!

Efficiency of thinking

To create more effective thinking, you need to master meaningful thinking, and then master areas for increasing the efficiency of thinking:

  1. Move from your worries to specifics.
  2. Replace negative thinking with positive thinking.
  3. Find the bridge from right thinking to productive thinking.

Thinking control

Control of thinking is primarily related to the development of thinking and higher functions of human psychology, the development of will and attention.

It happens that useless and unnecessary thoughts are spinning in your head that you want to discard. Don't bother trying to eradicate them, but try:

  1. Think positively and constructively
  2. Do something so that your thoughts are involved in this activity.
  3. Start remembering funny moments, positive stories and pleasant things that will create a good atmosphere.

Courses for the development and training of thinking

In addition to games, we have interesting courses that will perfectly pump up your brain and improve memory, thinking, and concentration:

Money and the Millionaire Mindset

Why are there problems with money? In this course we will answer this question in detail, look deep into the problem, and consider our relationship with money from psychological, economic and emotional points of view. From the course you will learn what you need to do to solve all your financial problems, start saving money and invest it in the future.

Development of memory and attention in a child 5-10 years old

The purpose of the course: to develop the child’s memory and attention so that it is easier for him to study at school, so that he can remember better.

After completing the course, the child will be able to:

  1. 2-5 times better to remember texts, faces, numbers, words
  2. Learn to remember for a longer period of time
  3. The speed of recalling the necessary information will increase

Secrets of brain fitness, training memory, attention, thinking, counting

If you want to speed up your brain, improve its functioning, improve your memory, attention, concentration, develop more creativity, perform exciting exercises, train in a playful way and solve interesting problems, then sign up! 30 days of powerful brain fitness are guaranteed to you:)

Super memory in 30 days

As soon as you sign up for this course, you will begin a powerful 30-day training in the development of super-memory and brain pumping.

Within 30 days after subscribing, you will receive interesting exercises and educational games in your email that you can apply in your life.

We will learn to remember everything that may be needed in work or personal life: learn to remember texts, sequences of words, numbers, images, events that happened during the day, week, month, and even road maps.

Speed ​​reading in 30 days

Would you like to quickly read books, articles, newsletters, etc. that interest you? If your answer is “yes,” then our course will help you develop speed reading and synchronize both hemispheres of the brain.

With synchronized, joint work of both hemispheres, the brain begins to work many times faster, which opens up much more possibilities. Attention, concentration, speed of perception intensifies many times over! Using the speed reading techniques from our course, you can kill two birds with one stone.

A child is born without thinking. In order to think, it is necessary to have some sensory and practical experience, fixed in memory. By the end of the first year of life, manifestations of elementary thinking can be observed in the child.

The main condition for the development of children's thinking is their purposeful upbringing and training. In the process of upbringing, the child masters objective actions and speech, learns to independently solve first simple, then complex problems, as well as understand the requirements made by adults and act in accordance with them.

The development of thinking is expressed in the gradual expansion of the content of thought, in the consistent emergence of forms and methods of mental activity and their change as the overall formation of personality occurs. At the same time, the child’s motivation for mental activity—cognitive interests—increases.

Thinking develops throughout a person’s life in the process of his activity. At each age stage, thinking has its own characteristics.

The thinking of a young child appears in the form of actions aimed at solving specific problems: get some object in the field of view, put rings on the rod of a toy pyramid, close or open a box, find a hidden thing, climb onto a chair, bring a toy, etc. .P. While performing these actions, the child thinks. He thinks while acting, his thinking is visual and effective.

Mastering the speech of people around him causes a shift in the development of a child’s visual and effective thinking. Thanks to language, children begin to think in general terms.

Further development of thinking is expressed in a change in the relationship between action, image and word. The word plays an increasingly important role in solving problems.

There is a certain sequence in the development of types of thinking in preschool age. Ahead comes the development of visual-effective thinking, followed by the formation of visual-figurative and, finally, verbal thinking.

Thinking of middle school students (11-15 years old) operates with knowledge acquired mainly verbally. When studying various academic subjects - mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, grammar, etc. - students deal not only with facts, but also with regular relationships, general connections between them.

At high school age, thinking becomes abstract. At the same time, there is also a development of concrete figurative thinking, especially under the influence of the study of fiction.

While learning the basics of science, schoolchildren learn systems of scientific concepts, each of which reflects one aspect of reality. The formation of concepts is a long process, depending on the level of their generality and abstractness, the age of the students, their mental orientation and teaching methods.

There are several levels in the assimilation of concepts: as they develop, students come closer and closer to the essence of the subject, phenomenon designated by the concept, and more easily generalize and connect individual concepts with each other.

The first level is characterized by an elementary generalization of specific cases taken from the personal experience of schoolchildren or from the literature. At the second level of assimilation, individual features of the concept are identified. Students either narrow or overextend the boundaries of the concept. At the third level, students try to give a detailed definition of the concept, indicating the main features and give correct examples from life. At the fourth level, complete mastery of the concept occurs, an indication of its place among other moral concepts, and successful application of the concept in life. Simultaneously with the development of concepts, judgments and inferences are formed.

Students in grades 1-2 are characterized by categorical, affirmative judgments. Children judge any subject one-sidedly and do not prove their judgments. Due to the increase in the volume of knowledge and the growth of vocabulary, schoolchildren in grades 3-4 begin to make problematic and conditional judgments. 4th grade students can reason based not only on direct, but also on indirect evidence, especially on specific material taken from personal observations. In middle age, schoolchildren also use disjunctive judgments and more often justify and prove their statements. High school students practically master all forms of expression of thought. Judgments with presumptive expressions, assumptions, doubts, etc. become the norm in their reasoning. With equal ease, older schoolchildren use inductive and deductive reasoning and reasoning by analogy. They can independently pose a question and prove the correctness of the answer.

The development of concepts, judgments and conclusions occurs in unity with mastery, generalization, etc. Successful mastery of mental operations depends not only on the assimilation of knowledge, but also on the special work of the teacher in this direction.

Individual differences in thinking

Types of thinking are at the same time typological features of the mental and practical activity of people. Each type is based on a special relationship of signaling systems. If a person has a predominance of concrete-actional or concrete-imaginative thinking, this means the relative predominance of the first signaling system over the other; if verbal-logical thinking is most characteristic of a person, this means the relative predominance of the second signaling system over the first. There are other differences in the mental activity of people. If they are stable, they are called qualities of the mind.

The concept of mind is broader than the concept of thinking. A person’s mind is characterized not only by the characteristics of his thinking, but also by the characteristics of other cognitive processes (observation, creative imagination, logical memory, attentiveness). Understanding the complex connections between objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, an intelligent person must understand other people well, be sensitive, responsive, and kind. The qualities of thinking are the basic qualities of the mind. These include flexibility, independence, depth, breadth, consistency and some other thinking.

Flexibility of the mind is expressed in the mobility of thought processes, the ability to take into account the changing conditions of mental or practical actions and, in accordance with this, change methods of solving problems. Flexibility of thinking is opposed to inertia of thinking. A person of inert thought is more likely to reproduce what he has learned than to actively search for the unknown. An inert mind is a lazy mind. Flexibility of mind is a mandatory quality for creative people.

Independence of the mind is expressed in the ability to pose questions and find original ways to solve them. The independence of the mind presupposes its self-criticism, i.e. a person’s ability to see the strengths and weaknesses of his activity in general and mental activity in particular.

Other qualities of minddepth, breadth and consistency are also important. A person of deep intelligence is able to “get to the root”, to delve into the essence of objects and phenomena. People of a consistent mind are able to reason strictly logically, convincingly prove the truth or falsity of any conclusion, and check the course of reasoning.

All these qualities of the mind are cultivated in the process of teaching children at school, as well as through persistent work on oneself.