Thinking and intelligence are terms that are similar in content. Both terms express different aspects of the same phenomenon. A person endowed with intelligence is capable of carrying out thinking processes. Thinking and intelligence have always been the hallmarks of man, because we call man Homo sapiens - reasonable man. However, the concept of intelligence is broader than the concept of thinking. Scientists cannot give a single definition of intelligence. Everyone puts their own nuance into this concept. Some researchers focus on the fact that intelligence is the ability to acquire new knowledge and skills, while others study the social aspects of intelligence. Today in science there are two most common definitions of intelligence:
intelligence - the ability to adapt to the environment; intelligence - the ability to solve mental problems.
Many psychologists note that intelligence has a complex structure. What is included in the structure of intelligence - there are many answers to this question.
At the beginning of the 20th century. Spearman came to the conclusion that each person is characterized by a certain level of general intelligence (he called it the G factor). General intelligence determines how a person adapts to his environment. In addition, all people have developed specific abilities to varying degrees, which manifest themselves in solving specific problems of adaptation to the social environment. Subsequently, G. Eysenck interpreted the concept of general intelligence as the speed of information processing by the central nervous system (mental pace). However, the hypothesis of the “speed of information processing by the brain” does not yet have serious neurophysiological arguments.
Today, the most famous is D. Guilford’s “cubic” model of intelligence. He believed that intelligence can be described in three main categories:
- 1) operations;
- 2) content;
- 3) results.
Cattell distinguishes potential and crystalline intelligence. He believes that each of us already has a potential intelligence from birth, which underlies our ability to think, abstract and reason. Around the age of 20, this intelligence reaches its greatest flowering. On the other hand, crystalline intelligence is formed,
Rice. 1.
consisting of various skills and knowledge that we acquire as we gain experience in life. Crystal intelligence is formed precisely when solving problems of adaptation to the environment and requires the development of some abilities at the expense of others, as well as the acquisition of specific skills. Thus, crystalline intelligence is determined by the measure of mastery of the culture of the society to which a person belongs. Potential intelligence determines the primary accumulation of knowledge. From Cattell's point of view, potential intelligence is independent of upbringing and environment. It depends on the level of development of the tertiary zones of the cerebral cortex.
Hebb views intelligence from a slightly different perspective. He highlights intelligence A - this is the potential that is created at the moment of conception and serves as the basis for the development of an individual’s intellectual abilities. As for intelligence B, it is formed as a result of a person’s interaction with the environment. To date, only intelligence B has been learned to be assessed by observing how a person performs mental operations. So far, scientists have not found a way to assess A.'s intelligence.
Disputes about the structure of intelligence are not accidental. They are not only of scientific interest, but also help answer the question that worries everyone - what factors determine the development of intelligence.
Today, scientists agree that the development of intelligence depends both on congenital factors and on upbringing and the child’s environment. Hereditary factors, chromosomal abnormalities, malnutrition and illnesses of the mother during pregnancy, abuse of antibiotics, tranquilizers or even aspirin in the first months of pregnancy, drinking alcohol and smoking can lead to a significant delay in the mental development of the child. But no matter what potential a child is born with, it is obvious that the forms of intellectual behavior necessary for his survival can develop and improve only through contact with the environment with which he will interact throughout his life. The richer and more varied the child’s communication with the people around him, the more successful the development of his intellect will be. In this regard, the role of the family’s social status becomes clear. Wealthy families have greater opportunities to create favorable conditions for the development of the child, the development of his abilities, his education and, ultimately, to increase the intellectual level of the child. The teaching methods used to develop the child’s abilities also have an impact. Unfortunately, traditional teaching methods are more focused on transferring knowledge to the child and pay relatively little attention to the development of a person’s abilities, intelligence, and creativity.
Cognitive processes: thinking, speech
test
4. The relationship between the concepts of “thinking” and “intelligence”
Thinking and intelligence are close concepts. We say “smart person”, denoting individual characteristics of intelligence. We can also say that a child's mind develops with age. Thus, the problems of intellectual development are highlighted. The term “thinking” corresponds in our everyday speech to the word “deliberation” or (less normatively, but perhaps more accurately) “thinking.” The word “mind” expresses a property, an ability. Thinking is a process. When solving problems, we think, and not “think about” - this is the sphere of the psychology of thinking, not intelligence. So, both conditions express different aspects of the same phenomenon. An intelligent person is one who is capable of carrying out thinking processes. Intelligence is the ability to think. Thinking is a process in which intelligence is realized. INTELLIGENCE is a certain degree of a person’s ability to solve tasks and problems of appropriate complexity. From these positions we can talk about the level of development of intelligence. It, logically, can be low, medium and high (or initial, low, medium, fairly high and high). Thinking and intelligence have long been considered the most important and characteristic features of a person. It is not without reason that the term “homo sapiens” is used to define the type of modern man. The one who has lost his mind seems to us to be crippled in his very human essence. Another, in our opinion, important question arises: is intelligence manifested equally in different aspects of life? Research shows - no. A person can differ significantly in intelligence in different fields, for example, science (physics) and be completely helpless in life situations. This was observed during the transition from a socialist to a market economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In addition, she can successfully solve complex problems in the field, such as mechanics, and be completely unable to lead a scientific team or make basic decisions in the field of finance. Therefore, it is advisable to talk about intelligence: scientific, professional, life, family, general management, political, social, etc.
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The relationship between the concepts of “thinking” and “intelligence”. Thinking as a type of cognition. Intelligence and adaptation.
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The relationship between the concepts of “thinking” and “intelligence”
Thinking and intelligence are terms that are similar in content. Their relationship becomes even clearer if we switch to everyday speech. In this case, the word “mind” will correspond to intelligence. We say “smart person”, denoting individual characteristics of intelligence. We can also say that “the child’s mind develops with age” - this conveys the problem of intellectual development. We can associate the term “thinking” with the word “deliberation.” The word “mind” expresses a property, an ability, and “deliberation” expresses a process. Thus, both terms express different aspects of the same phenomenon. A person endowed with intelligence is capable of carrying out thinking processes. Intelligence is the ability to think, and thinking is the process of realizing intelligence.
· Intelligence is the ability to think.
Thinking is an indirect and generalized cognition of objective reality.
Thinking and intelligence have long been considered the most important distinguishing features of a person. It is not without reason that the term is used to define the type of modern person Homo sapiens- a reasonable person. A person who has lost his sight, hearing or ability to move, of course, suffers a severe loss, but does not cease to be a person. After all, a deaf Beethoven or a blind Homer did not cease to be great for us. The one who has completely lost his mind seems to us to be defeated in his very human essence.
First of all, thinking is considered as a type of cognition. From a psychological point of view, cognition acts as the creation of representations of the external world, its models, or images. In order to get to work, we need some spatial model of the road between home and work. To understand what we are told in a lecture about the wars of Alexander the Great, we need to create some internal model depicting the victories of the great commander. However, thinking is not just any cognition. Cognition is, for example, perception. A sailor who sees a sailboat on the horizon from the mast of a ship also creates a certain mental model, a representation of what he saw. However, this idea is not the result of thinking, but of perception. That's why thinking is defined as indirect and generalized knowledge of objective reality.
For example, looking outside, a person sees that the roof of a neighboring house is wet. It is an act of perception. If a person concludes from the appearance of a wet roof that it has rained, then we are dealing with an act of thinking, albeit a very simple one. Thinking is indirect in the sense that it goes beyond the immediate given. From one fact we draw a conclusion about another. In the case of thinking, we are not simply dealing with the creation of a mental model based on observations of the external world. The thinking process is much more complicated: first, a model of external conditions is created, and then the next model is derived from it. So, in our example, a person first creates the first model related to the sphere of perception - the image of a wet roof, and then derives from it a second model, according to which it recently rained.
Thinking as cognition that goes beyond the immediate given is a powerful means of biological adaptation. An animal that can infer from indirect signs where its prey is located or where there is more food, whether a predator or a stronger relative is about to attack it, has a significantly better chance of surviving than an animal that does not have such an ability. It was thanks to intelligence that man took a dominant position on Earth and received additional means for biological survival. However, at the same time, human intelligence has also created colossal destructive forces.
From an individual point of view, there is essentially a threshold relationship between intelligence and performance success. For most types of human activity, there is a certain minimum intelligence that ensures the ability to successfully engage in this activity. For some activities (for example, mathematics) this minimum is very high, for others (for example, courier work) it is much lower.
However, “woe from mind” is also possible. Excessive intelligence can negatively affect a person's relationships with other people. Thus, data from a number of American researchers show that very high intelligence can harm politicians. For them, there is a certain optimum of intelligence, deviation from which both upward and downward leads to a decrease in success. If the politician's intelligence is below the optimum, then the ability to understand the situation, predict the development of events, etc. is reduced. If the optimum is significantly exceeded, the politician becomes incomprehensible to the group he is supposed to lead. The higher the intellectual level of the group, the higher the optimum intelligence for the leader of this group.
A very high level of intelligence (exceeding 155 points on IQ tests) also negatively affects the adaptation of children who have it. They are more than 4 years ahead of their peers in mental development and become strangers in their groups.
Types of thinking
We often associate thinking with a bearded sage reflecting on the structure of the universe. Of course, theoretical, scientific or philosophical thinking represents a highly developed form of this process. However, in animals and children we observe forms of activity that quite fit the definition of thinking given above. Let's take the following example from W. Köhler's classic experiment on chimpanzees.
“Six young animals... are locked in a room with smooth walls, the ceiling of which (about 2 m high) they cannot reach; a wooden box (50 x 40 x 30 cm) stands flat almost in the middle of the room, with its open side directed upward; the target is nailed to the roof in the corner (2.5 m from the box, if measured by the floor). All animals try unsuccessfully to reach the target by jumping from the floor; The Sultan, however, soon abandons this, walks around the room restlessly, suddenly stops in front of the box, grabs it, turns it over edge to edge straight towards the target, climbs onto it while it is still about 0.5 m away (horizontally), and , immediately jumping with all his might, disrupts the goal” (Köhler, 1981, pp. 241-242).
In this example, we see highly organized behavior of chimpanzees, which can be called intelligent. The chimpanzee uses a tool here, which requires establishing unobservable relationships between objects, that is, according to the definition given above, performing an act of thinking. But thinking here takes place not in terms of speech, but in terms of real actions with external objects. To refer to this phenomenon, Koehler used the phrase “manual intelligence.” The term “visual-effective thinking” has taken root in Russian psychology. The expression used by J. Piaget is almost synonymous with the first two - “sensory-motor intelligence”.
We will briefly consider just one system of concepts used to describe sensorimotor intelligence. This system of concepts was proposed by J. Piaget, and the central concept in it is the concept of “scheme”. This concept is introduced as the opposite of a reflex as a rigidly established connection between stimulus and reaction (they hit you under the knee - the leg trembled). A schema is an invariant of the organization of a family of related actions. For example, the action of grasping guided by a schema is not rigidly specified, but depends on the object at which it is directed: when grasping a rattle, the movements of a child's fingers are not the same as when grasping, say, a blanket.
In Piagetian terms, a schema of action assimilates various objects. The assimilation of new, unknown objects presupposes a change in the scheme, its accommodation. These not overly complex concepts are extremely useful in describing the developmental path that sensorimotor intelligence takes.
Initially, the description of sensorimotor intelligence was developed by Piaget based on the development of his own children in infancy (Fig. 13-1). However, this method of description is also applicable to animal intelligence. In particular, A. Re conducted research on the development of chickens in this way. A. Re's main result was that chickens go through approximately the same stages of development as human babies, more quickly at first, only this development stops much earlier.
According to Piaget, the development of sensorimotor intelligence can be divided into six main stages.
The first stage, which occupies approximately the first month of a child’s life, is characterized by a predominance of innate, strictly defined reflexes.
At the second stage (from one month to four), the child, as a result of interaction with the world around him, acquires the first simple skills. Accommodation of action patterns to new objects occurs. Mutual assimilation of one object into different schemes also appears. For example, mutual assimilation between the patterns of grasping and sucking is that the child puts into his mouth everything he grasps and grabs what gets into his mouth. At the same stage, but somewhat later, mutual assimilation occurs between the patterns of grasping and vision. At first, the child holds back objects that he carries to his mouth if they come into his field of vision. He then becomes able to grasp the object he sees. This happens, however, only if both the object and the hand fall into his field of vision. Finally, towards the end of this stage of development, he tries to look at what he has grabbed and, to the chagrin of his mother, strives to grab everything he sees.
At the third stage (approximately 4-8 months), the child begins to more actively explore objects in the outside world. Faced with an unfamiliar object, he examines it using familiar patterns: shaking, hitting, scratching, swinging. “Motor recognition” of objects also appears. Having noticed a familiar object, the child makes a sketch of the movements that he previously applied to it.
At the third stage, the child is not yet able to use one action as a means of performing another. This ability occurs at the fourth stage, towards the end of the first year of life. A child, for example, begins to move away his hand, which prevents him from taking an object. At this same stage, anticipation of events arises. Thus, one of Piaget’s children cries, anticipating separation, when the father gets up from his chair.
For the fifth stage (approximately 12-18 months), the most characteristic cognitive development is “the discovery of new means of achieving a goal through active experimentation.” This means that in order to achieve a goal, the child actively experiments to discover a suitable means.
At the sixth stage (18-24 months), the child becomes capable of “insight,” that is, a sudden, internal, without external experimentation, discovery of new means to achieve a goal. For example, a child who has not seen sticks until he was one and a half years old can immediately understand how to use them as tools. Piaget says that circuits at this stage acquire the ability to be combined before, rather than after, their eventual application.
The further path of development of intelligence lies in its transition to the symbolic plane, associated with the operation of symbols, primarily words. Until recently, it was believed that only humans possess symbolic intelligence. Attempts to teach higher animals human speech did not lead to success. However, in the 1980s. The American spouses Gardner managed to teach chimpanzees the language of the deaf and dumb. It turned out that the difficulties of previous attempts were associated not so much with the intellectual capabilities of the animals, but with the limitations of their articulatory apparatus or phonemic hearing. In the language of deaf-mutes, monkeys turned out to be capable of quite complex utterances: they not only used one-word sentences, but also constructed phrases of several words. Some monkeys even used words in a figurative sense, for example, the word “dirty” for a person who does not fulfill their wishes. However, in terms of speech development, a chimpanzee, even with special training, does not exceed a 3-5 year old human child.
Symbolic intelligence became the basis for the development of human culture. Thanks to him, practical action also achieved great perfection. With the help of symbolic intelligence, the preparatory stage of complex human actions is carried out: designs for buildings, engineering structures, rockets and aircraft are prepared, the laws of nature are studied, on the basis of which technology is created.
Symbolic intelligence has been studied more in psychology than sensorimotor intelligence.
Thinking and logic
Psychology is not the only thing that studies thinking. It is also dealt with by logic and theory of knowledge. What is the difference between the subjects of these sciences?
S. L. Rubinstein (1981, p. 72) writes: “In the theory of knowledge we are talking about the analysis, generalization, etc. of the products of scientific thinking that develop in the course of the historical development of scientific knowledge; in psychology we are talking about analysis, synthesis, etc. as the activities of a thinking individual.” So, psychology deals with the process of thinking, and logic and theory of knowledge are its product. It is necessary, however, to clarify what we mean by product here.
Let's say we prove the theorem that the point of intersection of the medians of a triangle divides them in the ratio of 2 to 1. By the product of thinking we should understand not just the final result, but the entire chain of inference from these conditions to the proven conclusion. The process studied by psychology is to identify the necessary properties of geometric objects, create a mental model, etc. The thinking process may or may not lead to the emergence of a logically correct product. In practice, for psychological study, errors often turn out to be more interesting than correct thinking, since they more clearly indicate the peculiarities of the functioning of the thinking mechanism.
Let's take a simple example. The experimenter shows the subject two sticks - A and B. The subject states that A is longer than B. Then the experimenter hides stick A and takes out stick C instead. After the subject is convinced that B is longer than C, the experimenter asks which one. the rod is longer, A or C. If the subject is a normal adult or a developed child over 7-8 years old, he will immediately realize that A is longer. In this example, at the initial stage of thinking, the subject had an idea of the situation, including two relations: A > B and B > C. Then the adult subject was able to transform his idea in such a way that he derived the unobservable property A > C.
With younger children the picture is different. A very small child will not be able to understand which stick is bigger. Older children correctly compare the sticks, but cannot answer the final question. For example, a child under 6-7 years old can say that he has not seen sticks A and C together, so he doesn’t know. The smallest child, therefore, is not even able to perceive the relation A > B. An older child can perceive this relation, but is not able to think about it, that is, to make it an element for the inference of an unobservable property. The ability to think (to deduce unobservable properties) arises when relationships are built into a system of the type A>B>C>D, etc. The “more-less” relationships thus psychologically acquire meaning only in the context of a coordinated system of all relationships.
It is logical to assume that the complexity of the transformation of a mental model depends on the structure of the task, that is, the nature of the system of relations connecting the elements of the task. For different structures, the complexity of drawing conclusions is different. This implies the essence of structural analysis in the psychology of intelligence.
The credit for introducing structural analysis into the psychology of intelligence belongs to J. Piaget. He applied structural analysis to the development of children's intelligence. Piaget systematically investigated how a child consistently becomes capable of thinking in various structures, and collected colossal empirical material about the characteristics of children's intelligence.
Let's take an example from the early work of J. Piaget, where the phenomena of so-called animism and artificialism were recorded in children under 7-8 years of age.
Animism is the attribution of animation to inanimate objects. For example, a child may believe that clouds move to accompany us on a walk or to bring down rain. In explanation, the place of physical causation is taken by the relation of intention or desire.
Artificialism- this is the belief in the emergence of objects and phenomena artificially. For example, many children interviewed by Piaget believed that rivers were dug by people, and mountains arose from the resulting earth (it should be remembered that Piaget conducted his experiments in mountainous Switzerland).
Structural analysis reveals the reason for animism and artifactualism - the lack of a formed understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. Children under 7-8 years of age mix the relations of natural causation with the relations of intention and its implementation.
It is important to emphasize that any structure can have many specific embodiments in content. For example, Swiss children in the late 1920s. Piaget expressed the opinion that the Moon was made by a “god.” Moscow children in the 1970s. L.F. Obukhova and G.V. Burmenskaya, who repeated Piaget’s experiments, said that the Moon was installed by astronauts. One and the same artificialist type of explanation thus acquires completely different interpretations.
Piaget systematized a huge amount of material on the development of a child’s intelligence using the theory of stages. As mentioned above, from birth to 2 years, according to Piaget, the child develops sensorimotor intelligence. From the age of two, a child is already capable of symbolic thinking. This period is called by Piaget the stage of pre-operational intelligence. At this stage, many phenomena discovered by Piaget are observed, which will be discussed a little later. From 7-8 to 11-12 years, these phenomena disappear. This stage is called the concrete operations stage. But only at the stage of formal operations from 11-12 to 15 years, ending with the final development of intelligence, does a teenager acquire the ability to carry out deductive reasoning and some other complex functions of thinking.
· Artificialism is an explanation of the emergence of objects and phenomena by artificial means.
The discovery of structural analysis and the development of methods for collecting empirical material constitute Piaget's enduring merit. At the same time, the theory of stages and the theory of grouping operations are currently subject to strong criticism.
The spheres of thought that operate with continuous quantities include the concepts of space and time studied by Piaget. Piaget identified three types of spatial relations: topological, projective and Euclidean.
Topological relationships relate to adjacent elements, are mastered by the child earlier than others and are based on the grouping of operations for assembling and disassembling objects. Projective and Euclidean relations, on the contrary, connect elements at a distance and arrange them in an ordered space; in the case of projective relations, the ordering factor is the coordination of points of view, the projective line; in the case of Euclidean relations, it is the coordinate system. Piaget believed that projective relationships are based on a grouping of operations associated with masking the invisible parts of an object when changing the point of view on it. In the case of Euclidean relations, operations of moving objects are grouped.
The stages of development of children's drawing, according to Piaget, show an earlier emergence of topological operations compared to projective and Euclidean ones. Initially, at the stage of inability to synthesize, the child violates all types of spatial relationships. For this age, a typical drawing is, for example, a “cephalopod”, that is, a little man whose arms and legs grow from his head.
Intelligence- the totality of a person’s mental abilities that ensure the success of his cognitive activity.
In a broad sense, this term is understood as the totality of all cognitive functions of an individual (perception, memory, imagination, thinking), and in a narrow sense - his mental abilities.
In psychology there is a concept structures of intelligence However, the understanding of this structure varies widely depending on the views of a particular psychologist. For example, a famous scientist R. Cattell distinguished two sides in the structure of intelligence: dynamic - “fluid”, and static - “crystallized” (crystallized). According to his concept, “fluid intelligence” manifests itself in tasks whose solution requires quick and flexible adaptation to a new situation. It depends more on the person's genotype. “Crystallized intelligence” is more dependent on the social environment and manifests itself when solving problems that require relevant skills and experience.
You can use other models of the structure of intelligence, for example, highlighting the following components in it:
- ability to learn (quickly master new knowledge, skills and abilities);
- the ability to successfully operate with abstract symbols and concepts;
- ability to solve practical problems and problem situations;
- the amount of available long-term and working memory.
Accordingly, intelligence tests include several groups of tasks. These are tests that reveal the amount of knowledge in a certain area; tests that evaluate a person’s intellectual development in connection with his biological age; tests that determine a person’s ability to solve problem situations and intellectual tasks. In addition, there are special tests. For example, on abstract-logical or spatial thinking, on verbal intelligence, etc.
The most well-known tests of this type include:
- Stanford-Binet test- assesses the child’s intellectual development;
- Wechsler test - evaluates the verbal and nonverbal components of intelligence;
- Raven's test - non-verbal intelligence;
- Eysenck test (IQ) - determines the general level of intelligence development.
When studying intelligence in psychology, there are two approaches: intellectual abilities are innate or develop in the process of individual development, as well as their intermediate version.
DEVELOPMENT OF THINKING
Development of thinking in the process of ontogenesis
Thinking is not formed in a person right away. In a newborn, it is absent; its activity is determined exclusively by unconditioned reflexes - unambiguous responses to certain stimuli. An infant at the age of several months also does not have thinking, but conditioned reflexes are already being formed. This means that his brain can flexibly connect two stimuli with each other and respond adequately to them - for example, a baby smiles at his mother and cries at the sight of a stranger. Only towards the end of the first year of life do the first elements of thinking begin to appear in the child, and it differs significantly from the thinking of an adult.
According to the views of a Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, there are four stages of development of thinking (Table 9.2).
Table 9.2. The main stages of development of thinking according to J. Piaget
| Stage | Age | Contents of the stage of development of thinking |
| Sensorimotor intelligence stage | 1-2 years | Development of the ability to perceive and cognize objects of the real world. By the end of this stage, the child becomes a subject - he distinguishes himself from the world around him. |
| Operational thinking stage | 2-7 years | Speech develops, the process of internalization of external actions is activated. Development of egocentric thinking (difficulty accepting the positions of other people) |
| Specific Operations Stage | From 7-8 to 11-12 years | The ability to give logical explanations for your actions, move from one point of view to another. Understanding of two important logical formulas: if A = B and B = C, then A = C and A + B = B + A. The ability to combine subjects into classes |
| Formal Operations Stage | From 12-15 onwards | Ability to perform mental operations using logical reasoning and abstract concepts |
Basic types of thinking
As the human psyche develops in the process of his socialization, the main way of his thinking gradually changes from concrete to more abstract, from external, objective to internal.
The first way a child thinks is visual-effective thinking(ages 1 to 3 years), that is, thinking in the form of practical actions. Young children learn about the world around them and make their first conclusions about its structure by testing objects with their hands, taking them apart and breaking them.
The next step is visually figurative, that is, thinking in the form of visual images and representations (visual, auditory, tactile). It is most developed between the ages of 4 and 7 years, but persists in adults. This thinking is based on practical reality, but can already create and store images that have no direct analogue in sensations (fairy-tale characters).
IN imaginative thinking, which is most developed among artists, designers, advertisers, tailors, hairdressers and architects, the material for solving the problem is not concepts, but images - often visual (for musicians - auditory). They are either retrieved from memory or recreated by imagination. The predominant role in this type of thinking is played by the human right hemisphere. The difference from the previous stage is the widespread use of verbal constructions in the formation and transformation of images, as well as the use of abstract concepts.
Abstract-logical(abstract or conceptual) thinking works in the form of abstract concepts, symbols and numbers. In this case, a person operates with concepts without dealing with experience gained through the senses. For example, the ethical terms “justice” and “conscience”, the mathematical terms “degree” and “derivative”, the economic terms “balance” or “profit” are abstract concepts and cannot be perceived directly by human senses.
In addition to classifying thinking by form, there are other ways to distinguish individual types of thinking. They may differ in the degree of deployment, the nature of the tasks being solved, etc.
These types of thinking (except for the third, discussed earlier) are displayed in table. 9.3.
Table 9.3.
| Type of thinking | Its feature |
| Theoretical | Thinking based on theoretical reasoning and inferences is the knowledge of laws and rules |
| Practical | Thinking based on judgments and inferences based on solving practical problems. The main task of practical thinking is to develop means of practical transformation of reality |
| Discursive (analytical) | Thinking mediated by the logic of reasoning rather than perception. Analytical thinking unfolds in time, has clearly defined stages, and is represented in the consciousness of the thinking person himself. |
| Intuitive | Thinking based on direct sensory perceptions and direct reflection of the effects of objects and phenomena of the objective world. Intuitive thinking is characterized by rapidity, the absence of clearly defined stages, and is minimally conscious |
| Reproductive | Thinking based on images and ideas drawn from certain sources |
| Productive | Thinking through creative imagination |
Thinking and intelligence are similar terms. Their relationship becomes even clearer when translated into words from ordinary Russian. In this case, the word “mind” will correspond to intelligence. We say “smart person” to denote individual differences in intelligence. We can also say that the child’s mind develops with age - this conveys the problem of intellectual development.
To the term “thinking” we can associate in our ordinary language the word “deliberation” or (less normatively, but perhaps more accurately) “thinking.” The word “mind” expresses a property, an ability; thinking is a process. When solving a problem, we think, and do not “get smart” - this is the sphere of the psychology of thinking, not intelligence. Thus, both terms express different aspects of the same phenomenon. An intelligent person is one who is capable of carrying out thinking processes. Intelligence is the ability to think. Thinking is a process in which intelligence is realized. Ushakov D.V. Thinking and intelligence // Psychology of the 21st century / Ed. V.N. Druzhinina. M.: Per Se, 2003, p. 291..
Thinking and intelligence have long been considered the most important and distinctive features of a person. It is not without reason that the term “homo sapiens” is used to define the type of modern man. A person who has lost his sight, hearing or ability to move, of course, suffers a severe loss, but does not cease to be a person. After all, deaf Beethoven or blind Homer are considered by us as great personalities. The one who has lost his mind seems to us to be struck at the very essence of humanity.
The description of the various types and types of thinking is based on the premise that there is no thinking at all: thinking is heterogeneous and subject to detail. Different types of thinking are divided according to their functional purpose, development, structure, means used, and cognitive capabilities.
In psychology, the most common classification of types of thinking is: visual-actional, visual-figurative, verbal-logical. This classification is based on a genetic principle and reflects three successive levels of development of thinking. Each of these types of thinking is determined by two criteria. One of them (the first part of the names) is the specific form in which it is necessary to present the subject with a cognizable object or situation in order for them to be able to be successfully operated:
The object as such in its materiality and concreteness;
An object depicted in a picture, diagram, drawing;
An object described in one or another sign system.
Another criterion (the second part of the names) is the main ways in which a person experiences the world around him:
Through practical action with an object;
Using figurative representations;
Based on logical concepts and other sign formations.
The main characteristic of visual-effective thinking is determined by the ability to observe real objects and learn the relationships between them in a real transformation of the situation. Practical cognitive objective actions are the basis of all later forms of thinking. With visual-figurative thinking, the situation is transformed in terms of image or representation. The subject operates with visual images of objects through their figurative representations. At the same time, the image of an object allows one to combine a set of heterogeneous practical operations into a holistic picture. Mastery of visual and figurative representations expands the scope of practical thinking.
At the level of verbal-logical thinking, a subject can, using logical concepts, cognize essential patterns and unobservable relationships of the reality under study. The development of verbal-logical thinking rebuilds and organizes the world of figurative ideas and practical actions.
The described types of thinking form the stages of development of thinking in phylogenesis and ontogenesis. They coexist in an adult and function in solving various problems. Therefore, they cannot be assessed in terms of greater or lesser value. Verbal-logical thinking cannot be the “ideal” of thinking in general, the end point of intellectual development.
Intelligence (from the Latin intellectus - understanding, understanding, comprehension) in psychology is defined as the general ability to cognition and problem solving, which determines the success of any activity and underlies other abilities. Intelligence is not limited to thinking, although thinking abilities form the basis of intelligence. In general, intelligence is a system of all human cognitive abilities: sensation, perception, memory, representation, imagination and thinking. The concept of intelligence as a general mental ability is used as a generalization of behavioral characteristics associated with successful adaptation to new life challenges.
In 1937, the first version of his test for measuring intelligence was proposed by D. Wexler. He created a scale to measure intelligence not only for children, but also for adults. The Wechsler intellectual scale for children has been translated into Russian, adapted and widely used in our country. The Wechsler scale differed significantly from the Stanford-Binet test. The tasks that were offered to the subjects according to L. Theremin’s method were the same for all ages. The basis for the assessment was the number of correct answers given by the subject. This number was then compared with the average number of responses for subjects in that age group. This procedure greatly simplified the calculation of IQ. D. Wexler proposed a qualitative classification of levels of intelligence development, based on the frequency of occurrence of a certain IQ:
69 and below - mental defect (dementia);
70-79 - borderline level of development;
80-89 - reduced level of intelligence;
90-109 - average level of intelligence;
110 - 119 is a good norm;
120-129 - high intelligence;
130 and above is a very high intelligence.
Currently, interest in intelligence tests has weakened significantly, primarily due to the low predictive value of these methods: subjects with high scores on intelligence tests do not always achieve high achievements in life, and vice versa. In this regard, the term “good intelligence” even appeared in psychology, which is understood as intellectual abilities that are effectively implemented in a person’s real life and contribute to his high social achievements.
Today, despite attempts to identify new “elementary intellectual abilities,” researchers are generally inclined to believe that general intelligence exists as a universal mental ability. In connection with the successes in the development of cybernetics, systems theory, information theory, etc., there has been a tendency to understand intelligence as the cognitive activity of any complex systems capable of learning, purposeful processing of information and self-regulation. The results of psychogenetic studies indicate a high level of genetic determination of intelligence. Nonverbal intelligence is more trainable. The individual level of intellectual development is also determined by a number of environmental influences: the “intellectual climate” of the family, the order of birth of the child in the family, the profession of the parents, the breadth of social contacts in early childhood, etc.