general characteristics imagination and its functions
Human consciousness is able not only to store information about objects, but also to perform various operations with it. Man stood out from the animal kingdom because he learned to create complex tools. But in order to create a stone axe, you had to first create it in your imagination. Man differs from animals in that he is able to create in his mind an image of an object or phenomenon that does not yet exist, and then brings it to life. After all, in order to transform the world in practice, you first need to be able to transform it mentally. This ability to build new images in thoughts is called imagination. The process of imagination is manifested in the creation by a person of something new - new images and thoughts, on the basis of which new actions and objects arise. Imagination is a part of the consciousness of the individual, one of the cognitive processes. It reflects the external world in a peculiar and unique way, it allows you to program not only future behavior, but also work with images of the past.
Imagination- this is a process of creative transformation of ideas that reflect reality, and the creation on this basis of new ideas that were previously absent.
In addition to this, there are other definitions of imagination. For example, it can be designated as the ability to represent an object that is absent (at the moment or in general in reality), hold it in consciousness and mentally manipulate it. Sometimes the term “fantasy” is used as a synonym, which refers to both the process of creating something new and the end product of this process. Therefore, in psychology, the term “imagination” is adopted, denoting only the procedural side of this phenomenon.
Imagination differs from perception in two ways:
The source of emerging images is not the external world, but memory;
- it corresponds less to reality, as it always contains an element of fantasy.
Imagination Functions:
1 Representation of reality in images, which makes it possible to use them by performing operations with imaginary objects.
2 Formation of an internal action plan (creating an image of the goal and finding ways to achieve it) in the face of uncertainty.
3 Participation in the arbitrary regulation of cognitive processes (management of memories).
4 Regulation of emotional states (in auto-training, visualization, neuro-linguistic programming, etc.).
5 The basis for creativity - both artistic (literature, painting, sculpture) and technical (invention)
6 Creation of images corresponding to the description of the object (when a person tries to imagine something that he has heard or read about).
7 Production of images that do not program, but replace activity (pleasant dreams that replace boring reality).
Types of imagination:
Depending on the principle underlying the classification, one can distinguish different types imagination (Fig. 10.1):
Imagination classification
Characteristics of individual types of imagination
active imagination(deliberate) - the creation by a person of his own free will of new images or ideas, accompanied by certain efforts (the poet is looking for a new artistic image to describe nature, the inventor sets the goal of creating a new technical device, etc.).
passive imagination(unintentional) - while the person does not set himself the goal of transforming reality, and the images spontaneously arise themselves (this type mental phenomena includes a wide range of phenomena, ranging from dreams to an idea that suddenly and unplanned appeared in the mind of the inventor).
Productive (creative) imagination - the creation of fundamentally new ideas that do not have a direct sample, when reality is creatively transformed in a new way, and not just mechanically copied or recreated.
Reproductive (recreative) imagination - the creation of an image of objects or phenomena according to their description, when reality is reproduced from memory in the form that it is.
Characteristics of certain types of imaginations:
dreams can be attributed to the category of passive and involuntary forms of imagination. According to the degree of transformation of reality, they can be either reproductive or productive. Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov called dreams "an unprecedented combination of experienced impressions", and modern science believes that they reflect the process of transferring information from operational to long-term memory. Another point of view is that in a person’s dreams many vital needs are expressed and satisfied, which, for a number of reasons, cannot be realized in real life.
Hallucination- passive and involuntary forms of imagination. According to the degree of transformation of reality, they are most often productive. Hallucinations are called fantastic visions that have no clear connection with human environment reality. Usually hallucinations are the result of some kind of mental disorder or exposure to drugs or drugs on the brain.
dreams unlike hallucinations, they are a completely normal mental state, which is a fantasy associated with a desire, most often a somewhat idealized future. This is a passive and productive type of imagination.
Dream differs from a dream in that it is more realistic and more feasible. Dreams belong to the type of active forms of imagination. According to the degree of transformation of reality, dreams are most often productive. Dream Features:
- When dreaming, a person always creates an image of what he wants.
- It is not included directly in human activity and does not immediately give practical results.
- The dream is directed to the future, while some other forms of imagination work with the past.
- The images that a person creates in his dreams are distinguished by emotional richness, vivid character, and at the same time - a lack of understanding of specific ways to fulfill a dream.
Dreams and dreams of a person take up quite a large part of the time, especially in youth. For most people, dreams are pleasant thoughts about the future. Some also have disturbing visions that give rise to feelings of anxiety, guilt, aggressiveness.
Mechanisms for processing representations into imaginary images. The creation of images of the imagination is carried out using several methods:
Agglutination- “folding”, “gluing” various parts that are not connected in everyday life. An example is the classic character of fairy tales - the centaur, the Serpent-Gorynych, etc.
hyperbole- a significant increase or decrease in an object or its individual parts, which leads to qualitatively new properties. The following fairy-tale and literary characters can serve as an example: the giant Homeric Cyclops, Gulliver, Boy-with-Thumb.
accentuation- highlighting a characteristic detail in the created image (friendly cartoon, caricature).
The concept of imagination
Imagination- this is the creation of images of objects that have not been encountered in a person's personal experience, resulting in the creation of new material and spiritual values. Let's make a comparison (finding similarities and differences) of imagination with other cognitive processes:
comparison of imagination and perception:
b) general: both perception and imagination are based on the process of creating images;
comparison of imagination and figurative memory: memory images are the reproduction of past experience, the preservation of the accuracy of perceived images; the imagination presupposes their transformation;
common in the processes of imagination and thinking:
thinking, like imagination, allows you to foresee the future: imagination helps thinking find new solutions, making the content of the problem visual-figurative;
The difference between imagination and thinking lies in the fact that thinking, whatever important role it did not play in foreseeing the future, it presupposes the knowledge of the laws real world which each of us has to reckon with in order not to perish in it.
Types of imagination
To distinguish the types of imagination, we take two bases:
1.Participation of consciousness:
a) involuntary imagination associated with the spontaneous emergence in the mind of a person of any images without any participation of the will (dreams, fantasies, dreams, visions and dreams). It is interesting to note that they can sometimes be prophetic (especially dreams), that is, predict the future, or explain the past. Involuntary imagination is especially actualized in those cases when the action of consciousness is weakened, when a person is in a state of semi-drowsiness, sleep, intense expectation, a strong exacerbation of significant needs, or in pathological mental disorders.
b) arbitrary imagination: recreative and creative.
Recreating imagination associated with the construction of images according to a description prepared in advance by someone, for example, when reading books, poems, notes, drawings, mathematical signs. Otherwise, this type of imagination is called reproductive, reproducing, remembering. In the recreative imagination, reality is reproduced almost unprocessed, so it is more like perception or memory than creativity.
Types of recreative imagination: a) empathy, which requires our ability to get used to the image of emotions experienced by another person, i.e. requires us to reproduce the emotions of the one with whom we communicate; b) diagrams, tables, drawings; c) recreating in the imagination the images of heroes perceived from the description when reading fiction. However, such imagination is not creative, since these images were created not by the reader, but by the author of the work.
creative imagination- This is an independent creation of new images according to one's own plan. It is very typical for the activities of painters, designers, composers, directors, writers, poets, architects and other representatives of creative professions.
2.Image content (subject, socio-psychological):
Object Imagination subordinated to the creation of images of the objective environment and it is necessary for engineers, architects, designers, cooks, tailors, etc.
Socio-psychological imagination is a condition for the formation and development of those personality traits that express a person's attitude towards himself and other people. It is presented:
images of other people, as it serves communication and acts as a tool for solving psychological problems: to imagine the ways of human behavior in a given situation, to make a forecast of personality development, etc.;
the image of oneself (the image of "I") as an individual's concept of himself, on the basis of which he builds relationships with other people and builds life plans.
Ways to create images of creative imagination
Agglutination (combination) - the technique of creating a new image by subjectively combining elements or parts of some original objects. but about true synthesis. At the same time, completely different, in everyday life, even incompatible objects, qualities, properties can be combined. Many fabulous images were created by agglutination (a mermaid, a hut on chicken legs, a centaur, a sphinx, etc.). The described technique is used both in art and in technical creativity. It can be used in social cognition in the formation of a holistic image of both oneself and another.
Analogy – it is the creation of the new in resemblance to the known. Analogy is a subjective transfer of basic properties and objects from one phenomenon to another. This technique is widely used in technical creativity. So, by analogy with flying birds, people came up with flying devices, by analogy with the shape of the body of a dolphin, the frame of a submarine was designed. By analogy with oneself, one can understand the motives of the behavior of others.
accentuation - this is a way of creating a new image, in which some quality of the object or its relationship with another is brought to the fore, strongly emphasized. This technique underlies caricatures and friendly caricatures. It can also be used to understand certain stable, characteristic features other people.
hyperbole – subjective exaggeration (understatement) of not only the size of an object (phenomenon), but also the number of its individual parts and elements or their displacement. An example is the image of Gulliver, the Boy-with-Thumb, the many-headed Dragon, Thumbelina, midgets and other fabulous images. This is the simplest approach. You can increase and decrease almost everything: geometric dimensions, weight, height, volume, wealth, distance, speed. This technique can be used in self-knowledge and knowledge of other people, mentally exaggerating certain personal qualities or character traits. Hyperbolization makes the image bright and expressive, highlighting some of its specific qualities. So, in the comedies of Fonvizin, the images of Mitrofanushka, Skotinin, Pravdin are created in order to arouse the reader's disgust for their character traits and behavioral style.
Typing – this is a technique for generalizing a set of related objects in order to highlight common, recurring features in them and embody them in a new image. At the same time, specific personal qualities are completely ignored. This is the most difficult way to form a new image. This technique is widely used in literature, sculpture and painting. The typing was used by A.N. Ostrovsky in his plays when creating images of merchants.
Addition lies in the fact that the object is attributed (or given) alien to it (most often mystical) qualities and properties. Based on this technique, some fabulous images were created: walking boots, gold fish, Magic carpet.
moving – it is the subjective placement of the object in new situations in which it has never been and cannot be at all. This technique is very widely used to understand other people, as well as in artistic creativity. Any work of art is a special system of psychological time and space in which the characters act.
merger - arbitrary comparison and combination of the qualities of different objects in one image. So, L.N. Tolstoy wrote that in the image of Natasha Rostova, the qualities of his wife Sonya and her sister Tanya are merged. Similarly, fusion can be used by you in a building drawing where multiple architectural styles can be combined.
SELF-CHECK QUESTIONS
What is the role of memory in the formation life experience personality?
What is the connection between memory and the future in the life of a person?
What gives a person knowledge of the basic laws of memory?
What are the grounds for classifying types of memory?
What is the difference random access memory from the short term?
What information is transferred to long-term memory?
List the main memory processes.
Under what conditions can the productivity of involuntary memorization be higher than voluntary?
What are the types of conservation as a process of memory?
List the factors of effective memorization.
What is the impact on the memorization of the personality characteristics of a person and his emotional state at the moment of remembering?
What is the role of figurative thinking in solving engineering problems?
What is the specificity of verbal-logical thinking?
What is the difference between motor memory and visual-active thinking?
What is the nature of creative imagination?
Name the types of recreative imagination.
How does objective imagination differ from socio-psychological imagination?
List techniques for creating images of creative imagination.
How can analogy and displacement be used in understanding other people?
What are the features of memory in children?
Reveal ways to develop imaginative thinking in children.
TASKS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK
Exercise 1
Determine what types of memory are included in the following life situations:
the doctor prescribes treatment to the patient, listing the procedures that he needs to perform;
the experimenter invites the subjects to look at the table and immediately reproduce what they saw;
the witness is asked to make verbal portrait criminal;
the host of the competition asks the participants to try the proposed dish and determine what products it is made from;
the director instructs the actor to learn a new role in the play.
Task 2
How would you explain the facts described?
One actor had to unexpectedly replace his friend and learn his role within one day. During the performance, he knew her perfectly, but after the performance, everything he had learned was erased from his memory like a sponge and the role was completely forgotten by him.
In "Memoirs of Scriabin" L.L. Sabaneev cites the words of the composer: “What does it look like to you in C major? Red. But the minor is blue. After all, each sound, or rather, the tonality corresponds to a color.
Task 3
Imagine your future professional activity and indicate what demands it makes on the imagination.
Describe the imagination of people with given character traits (ambition, cowardice, anxiety, vindictiveness, compassion) in the context of relevant life situations.
Give a description of the imagination that is actualized in the following situations: a) looking at the notes, the musician “hears” the melody; b) in a moment of danger in the mind of a person, his whole life can be clearly represented.
The artist is developing a design project for the assembly hall.
The child listens to the fairy tale "The Three Little Pigs".
Task 4
Indicate what methods of creating images were used in the following cases: mermaid, Serpent-Gorynych, amphibious man, bun, Baba Yaga, Plyushkin, self-assembled tablecloth, Don Juan, portrait of A.S. Pushkin, submarine, Pechorin, radar.
Task 5
What types of thinking are shown in the following situations? (When answering, indicate the characteristics of the corresponding type of thinking).
Cutting out the details of the future dress by the dressmaker.
Making a complex detail on a lathe by a craftsman.
Interior design by an interior designer.
Student's solution of a problem in theoretical mechanics.
Assembling a structure by a child from a game constructor.
Drawing up an architect's future building plan.
Task 6
Determine which mental operations and types of thinking are manifested by the following given influences?
Compare with each other according to natural conditions and the number of inhabitants Karelia and Yakutia.
Make up a sentence from the given set of words.
Formulate the main idea of M. Bulgakov's novel "Heart of a Dog".
The head of the department instructs the accountant to prepare a report using the available financial documents for the current period.
Imagination can manifest itself in different ways. You can understand this more deeply by getting acquainted with the main types of imagination.
depending on the severity of activity There are two types of imagination: passive and active.
- passive imagination characterized by the creation of images that are not subsequently embodied in practical deeds, activities. The created images replace real life activity with fantasies, dreams, etc.
depending from willpower passive imagination can be either intentional or unintentional.
Intentional (arbitrary) passive imagination(dreams) are images of fantasy, consciously evoked, but not connected with the will, aimed at bringing them to life. Unintentional (involuntary) passive imagination is the spontaneous creation of new images. It occurs when the activity of consciousness, the second signal system, is weakened, for example, in a semi-drowsy state, in a state of passion, in a dream (dreams), with pathological disorders of consciousness (hallucinations), when reading books, etc.
- active imagination associated with the implementation of specific practical activities. Starting to do something, we present an image of the result, methods of activity, etc. Active imagination is more directed outward: a person is centered primarily on external objects (on a situation, other people, business) and to a lesser extent on internal subjective experiences, thoughts, etc. Often the active imagination is stimulated, directed by the task, and always controlled by the will. However, active imagination is not necessarily only specific deeds - it can also be observed in communication (a vivid example is the manifestation of empathy - the ability to understand another person, to be imbued with his thoughts and feelings, to sympathize, to rejoice with him, empathize).
depending on the nature of the created image active imagination can be recreative or creative .
- Recreating imagination is an introduction to something new this person, based on a verbal description or conditional image of this new (drawing, map, notes, etc.). Widely used in various types activities during training.
- creative imagination - this is the creation of new images without relying on a ready-made description or conditional image. This is the independent creation of new images (writing a novel, a piece of music, etc.).
Creative imagination is a type of imagination during which a person independently creates new images and ideas that are of value to other people or society as a whole and which are embodied (“crystallized”) into specific original products of activity. Creative imagination is a necessary component and basis of all types of human creative activity.
Dream - an image that reflects the desired future for a person.
The role of dreams in life for a person is difficult to overestimate. It is future-oriented, makes life exciting and purposeful. Although the dream does not imply the immediate achievement of a real result, as well as its complete coincidence with the image of the desired one, but at the same time it can become a strong motivating and meaning-forming main active and creative life of a person.
Ways to create new images. The creation of images of the imagination goes through two main stages.
1. The first stage of the formation of images of the imagination is characterized by analysis impressions received from reality or ideas formed as a result of previous experience. During this analysis, object abstraction, i.e. it appears to us isolated from other objects, while abstracting parts of the object also occurs.
2. With these images, further transformations two main types. First, these images can be placed in new combinations and connections. Secondly, these images can be given a completely new meaning. In any case, operations are performed with abstracted images that can be characterized as synthesis. The forms in which the synthesizing activity of the imagination is carried out are extremely diverse. Let's consider some of them.
Agglutination- "gluing" of various qualities that do not meet and are not connected in everyday life, i.e. the creation of a new image by attaching parts or properties of one object to another in the imagination (An example is the classic character of fairy tales man-beast or man-bird, the image of a winged man in the drawings of North American Indians, sphinxes (a woman's head, a body and paws with huge claws of a lion, huge wings), dragons, an image of an ancient Egyptian deity (a man with a tail and an animal head), a hut on chicken legs, a centaur: a bull's body, neck and head - top part human body; mermaid: hair - algae, torso and head of a woman, tail - fish). Depicting the inhabitants of Mars, science fiction writer HG Wells gave them the "features" of earthly inhabitants, using familiar objects in the description. So the Martian's head looks like a metal cylinder equipped with a bird's beak, the legs resemble the limbs of an insect, and in general the Martian turned out to be like a huge octopus. Agglutination is widely used in art and technical creativity (amphibian car and hovercraft).
Enlargement (hyperbole) or reduction (lithot) of an object or its parts. With the help of this method, various literary characters were created, works of art. Since childhood, paintings by V.M. Vasnetsov "Alyonushka", "Three heroes" and as a form of imagination hyperbolization of "Ivan Tsarevich on a gray wolf".
Hyperbole and litotes, as well as agglutination, can also be carried out by including already known images in a new context. In this case, new connections are established between representations, thanks to which the entire set of images receives a new meaning. As a rule, when introducing views into a new context, this process is preceded by a certain idea or purpose. This process is completely controllable, unless it is a dream, when consciousness control is impossible. When including already known images in a new context, a person achieves a correspondence between individual representations and a holistic context. Therefore, the whole process from the very beginning is subject to certain meaningful connections. The following fairy-tale characters can serve as an example: Dwarf Nose, Boy - with - a finger, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", a inch girl. This approach is widely used in folk tales, epics, when the hero is depicted as a mighty build, with superhuman strength, which allows him to fight with an entire enemy army "above a standing forest, just below a walking cloud."
Hyperbole and litotes are widely used in poetry and prose (for Nekrasov - "a man with a fingernail", for Gogol - "a rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper", etc.). Hyperbole and litote are the images of giants and midgets in J. Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels.
Hyperbolization can also be achieved by changing the number of parts of the object (many-armed Buddha, one-eyed cyclops, dragon with seven heads).
The most significant ways of processing ideas into images of the imagination, following the path of generalization of essential features, are schematization and emphasis.
Schematization. In this case, individual representations merge, the differences are smoothed out. The main features of similarity are clearly worked out, i.e. generalized image of something. This is any schematic drawing. Schematization is manifested in national ornaments and patterns of embroidery, carving, painting. By the ornament that adorns some thing: a spinning wheel, a vase, a bowl, a pot, a book, an icon, etc., one can determine the camp, where it was created and even the time of its creation.
In the ancient Egyptian ornament we see lotus flowers, papyrus, in ancient Greek - lines broken at right angles and elements of the plant and animal world, in Russian - ligature (skillful combination of letters), fantastic animals and birds, figures of people.
Schematization can take place under various conditions:
1. It may arise as a result of incomplete, superficial perception of the object. In this case, the representations are schematized in a random way, among them are sometimes secondary details that are accidentally discovered during the perception of the object. As a result, distortions arise that lead to the creation of images of the imagination that perversely reflect reality. This phenomenon often occurs in children.
2. The reason for schematization in the case of a sufficiently complete perception of the object may be the forgetting of any insignificant details or parts. In this case, essential details and features come to the fore in the presentation. At the same time, the representation loses some individuality and becomes more generalized.
3. The reason for schematization may be a conscious distraction from the non-essential, or secondary, aspects of the object. A person consciously directs his attention to the essential, in his opinion, features and properties of an object and, as a result, reduces his ideas to a certain scheme.
Typing. It is characterized by highlighting the essential, repeating in some respects homogeneous facts and embodying them in a specific image. For example, there are professional images of a worker, doctor, engineer, etc. Artists, writers, sculptors rely more on it, reflecting the typical, highlighting the essential repetition of properties, qualities, phenomena in the individual.
accentuation consists in emphasizing the most significant, most important, typical features of the image. As a rule, this method is used when creating artistic images. A classic example is a cartoon, a caricature. Main Feature Such a processing of images of perception into images of the imagination is that, reflecting reality and typing it, the artistic image always gives a broad generalization, but this generalization is always reflected in a specific image. Moreover, the processing of representations when creating a typical image is not carried out by mechanical folding or subtraction of any features. The process of creating a typical image is a complex creative process and reflects certain individual characteristics the person who creates this image.
In general and special psychology, active and passive imagination are distinguished.
Passive imagination, in turn, is divided into intentional and unintentional. Active imagination - on creative and recreating.
The passive form of imagination appears when, during imagination, activity is replaced by fantastic ideas that are far from real life, one’s activity, analysis of one’s mistakes, etc. A similar form of passive imagination occurs both in adults and in children. Deliberate imagination is expressed in images of fantasy, but it is not associated with volitional action. These images are associated with needs and interests and can often be joyful, enticing and enjoyable. They are called "dreams".
Creative imagination is inherent in people of all ages. It is formed from early childhood in the form of new images that are aimed at productive activity (“I will grow up to be this or that”, “I will do this and that”, etc.). This type Imagination is extremely important, and it must be developed in all children, as a form of any creativity and purposefulness, aimed at finding ways to meet creative needs. Reconstructive imagination is imagination based on the creation of images that match a deliberate description. Recreative imagination occurs in children when studying geographical maps, reading books, listening to stories, watching filmstrips, movies, etc. The habit of children to empathize with images of nature, books, movies will help them in life to bring images of imagination closer to their activities.
Studies show that imagination develops in the process of learning and is formed in stages. In the development of the imagination, an important role is played by the increase in the activity of children, the improvement of visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. Images of creative imagination are created through various techniques and methods. The transformation of the material in the imagination obeys certain laws that express its peculiarity.
Imagination is characterized by processes that are elements of visibility. So, the operation of generalization when creating an image of the imagination is the operation of typification. Typification, as a specific generalization, consists in creating a complex, holistic image of a synthetic nature. For example, there are professional images of a worker, a doctor, etc.
The technique of imagination is also combination, which is the selection and creation of certain features of objects or phenomena. Combination is not a simple mechanical combination of the original elements, but their combination according to a specific logical scheme. The basis for combination is human experience.
The next essential way to create creative images is to emphasize, emphasize certain features, signs, sides, properties, their exaggeration or understatement. A classic example is a cartoon, a caricature. The technique of reconstruction also has a certain significance in the activity of the imagination, when the integral structure of the image is recreated according to a part, attribute, property.
There is a method of aplutination, i.e., "gluing" various parts that are not connected in everyday life. An example is the classic character of fairy tales: a man-beast or a man-bird.
Hyperbalization - a paradoxical increase or decrease in an object or its individual parts (example: A boy with a finger).
The mechanism of the functioning of the imagination is also the method of assimilation, which, in the form of allegories and symbols, plays a significant role in aesthetic creativity. V scientific knowledge the technique of assimilation is also important: it allows one to construct schemes, to represent certain procedures (modeling, schematization, etc.).
The technique of dismemberment lies in the fact that the new is obtained as a result of the separation of parts of objects.
Substitution is the replacement of one element by another.
There is another analogy. Its essence lies in the creation of the new by analogy (similarity) with the known.
Determining the peculiarity of the imagination associated with the named methods of reality, it should be emphasized that all of them in one way or another proceed not only in abstraction, but also in the form of sensuality. These processes are based mental operations, but the form of all transformations here is precisely sensuality. The ultimate source of imagination operations is subject-practical activity, which serves as the foundation for transforming and formalizing the content of imagination images. Consequently, the basis for the imagination are sensory images, but their transformation is carried out in a logical form.
The main mechanism for creating images of the imagination is the transformation of ideas in the course of analytical and synthetic activity; it proceeds in various forms:
1. Agglutination - the creation of new images based on the "gluing" of parts, existing images and ideas.
2. Hyperbolization - an increase or decrease in an object and a change in its individual parts (giant, little boy)
3. Schematization - individual specific ideas merge, differences are smoothed out, and similarities appear more clearly.
4. Typification - highlighting the essential recurring in homogeneous images.
5. Sharpening - emphasizing any individual features (parodies, cartoons)
INTELLIGENCE
Currently, there are many definitions of intelligence. For a long time there were two approaches to understanding intelligence.
In the first approach, intelligence is understood as a hereditary trait associated with the speed of perception or response to external stimuli, so the time spent by the subjects on solving the proposed tasks served as an indicator of intelligence.
The second approach is characteristic of scientists developing the first tests to determine the level of general intelligence (Bene, Simon, 1905). They believed that a person with intelligence correctly judges, understands, reflects and, thanks to common sense and initiative, can adapt to the circumstances of life.
Currently, most psychologists consider intelligence as the ability of an individual to adapt to environment. Although, the components of intelligence and how they are measured are still controversial.
Intelligence- general cognitive ability, which determines a person's readiness to assimilate and use knowledge and experience, as well as to rational behavior in problem situations.
In the broad sense of the word - this is the totality of all cognitive functions of the individual (sensations, perceptions, thinking, imagination).
In the narrow sense of the word - this is only thinking, is identified with the system of mental operations, the effectiveness of an individual approach to the situation, with biopsychic adaptation to the current circumstances of life.
The structure of the intellect.
In psychology, they consider general intelligence and other types of intelligence, determined by the predominance of certain abilities. General intelligence determines how a person adapts to the environment.
Thurstone (1938) identifies 7 specific features of intelligence:
counting,
Verbal flexibility
verbal perception,
Spatial orientation
· memory,
The ability to reason
speed of perception.
Guildford(1959) identified 120 such features and, in particular, social intelligence.
Eysenck believes that the speed of the flow of mental processes is the mental characteristic that largely determines the success or failure of a person in activity, i.e. he identifies intellect with the speed of mental reactions. He considers general intelligence and 3 types of special (mathematical, verbal and visual-spatial).
Intelligent Behavior always contains, including automatic, stereotypical components in the form of partial operations included in the execution of intellectual actions.
With the development of intellectual activity, the variability and plasticity of behavior increases significantly, acquiring, as it were, a new dimension. In behavior based on skills, on the functional stereotypes developed in the process of individual development, the subsequent act of behavior repeats the previous one. If in instinctive reactions behavior was fettered by the past of the species, then in habits it is bound by the individual past. Reacting to the present situation with a stereotypical situation, the individual reacts to it as to the past, adequately relating to it only because it is a repetition of the past. Hence the inevitable contradictions between behavior and the objective conditions of the situation in which it takes place. As intellectual activity develops, this contradiction is resolved. With the development of intellectual activity, each act of behavior acquires significant variability. As a result, internal prerequisites arise for a more adequate regulation of behavior in accordance with the new, changing conditions of the external, objective situation.
"Reasonable" behavior associated with the development of intelligence is usually opposed to instinct and skill. At the same time, elements of reasonableness of the intellect are also present within instinct and skill. The whole history of the development of instincts and skills, especially at the higher levels, is inextricably intertwined with the development of the intellect, at each stage, in new forms, revealing contradictions, their unity and mutual transition into each other.
The "reasonableness" of behavior depends, first of all, on the nature of perception.
The ability to differentiate objects in a situation and respond to their relationships is the primary prerequisite for intelligence in the broad, non-specific sense of the word. The core of the intellect itself is the ability to single out in a situation its essential properties for action in their connections and relationships and to bring one's behavior in line with them.
Significant connections are based on real dependencies, and not on random coincidences. It is possible to single out the real dependencies essential for the action only by changing the situation, i.e. influencing her. Therefore, the development of intelligence is due to the development of the motor apparatus, both peripheral and central.
The existing biological prerequisite for the development of intelligence is the development of the hand and vision, the ability to perform actions that change the situation under the control of vision, and thus observe the results of one’s own impact on the world: the mode of action determines the mode of cognition to no lesser extent than the mode of cognition defines the mode of action.
Due to this dependence of the development of intellect on the development of the hand and vision, on the peculiarity of actively influencing the environment and observing the results of this influence, the biological prerequisites for intellect arise in monkeys, which for the first time develop manipulation under the control of highly developed vision. Intelligence, in the specific sense of the word, develops in a person in the course of historical development in the course of labor. By changing reality in his social and labor activity, a person cognizes it and, cognizing it, changes it. The human intellect, which serves to cognize reality and guide action, is formed in the process of influencing reality.
Intellectual activity characterized not only by peculiar mechanisms, but also by specific motivation.
Intellectual activity, acts as:
curiosity,
curiosity,
a specific cognitive form of interest in the environment.
This interest, curiosity is a need that arises in the process of activity that changes the surrounding objects.
Exploratory impulse - this is, first of all, interest in the subject, generated by the changes that it undergoes as a result of influences on it: cognitive, theoretical interest arises in practical activities.
Intellect and "INTELLIGENT" activities associated with it are products of long-term development. But having arisen as a result of development, they themselves develop.
The development of intelligence is expressed:
1. In changes not only quantitative, but also qualitative of the intellect itself. Both the content and the form of intellectual activity are changing: in terms of content, intellectual operations penetrate into ever deeper layers of existence, as forms of effective penetration into the environment and reality change develop.
Analysis and synthesis originate in action and are first produced as practical analysis and synthesis. In the future, in a person, practical operations become not only practical (woven into the structure of action), but also theoretical, more and more mediated.
2. In change and other forms of behavior. The instinct, acquiring more and more labile forms, passes into attraction, in which only the initial impulse of action and the act that completes its implementation are fixed. The whole intermediate process, on which depends whether the impression will be satisfied, when, how and under what conditions, passes already to the intellect.
Skill is rebuilt no less radically: a person acquires skills that are entirely built on the basis of intellectual activity; through special training or exercise, an intellectual operation turns into a skill.
3. The relationship between intellect, skill and instinct also changes. At first, the elements of intellect are enclosed within instinct and skill, manifesting themselves in loosely stereotyped, changing in relation to situations, forms of both one and the other.
Skill, as an individually acquired form of behavior that changes under the influence of personal experience, is especially close to intelligence. At the first stages of the development of intellectuality, the skill and the elementary rudiments of the intellect are in unity. This undifferentiated unity develops, and development proceeds in two directions - on the one hand, higher specific forms of intellect are differentiated, on the other hand, still relatively routine skills, more or less inert automatisms. As a result, the unity between various forms of the psyche and behavior is not interrupted, but only becomes more differentiated.
Today "intelligence"- it is rather an abstract concept that combines many factors, rather than something specific that can be measured.
Intellect (from lat. Intellectus - mind, mind, mind) - the structure of the mental abilities of the individual, the level of his cognitive abilities, the mechanism of the individual's mental adaptation to life situations.
Intelligence - this is a stable structure of the mental abilities of the individual, expressing the level of his cognitive abilities and features of the flow of thought processes, the mechanisms of the individual's mental adaptation to life situations, the inclusion of the individual in the sociocultural experience of society.
“Intelligence is the global ability to act intelligently, think rationally, and deal well with life circumstances"(Wexler).
Thus, intelligence is seen as the ability of a person to adapt to the environment.
Intelligence Qualities:
1. inquisitive mind - this is the desire to diversify this or that phenomenon in its essential relations. This quality underlies active cognitive activity.
2. depth of mind - the ability to separate the main from the secondary, the necessary from the accidental.
3. Flexibility and mobility of the mind - the ability of a person to widely use existing experience and knowledge, to quickly explore known objects in new relationships and relationships, to overcome stereotyped thinking.
4. Logical thinking - this property appears in a strict sequence of reasoning, taking into account all the essential aspects in the object under study.
5. Evidence of thinking - the ability to use at the right time such facts and patterns that convince the correctness of judgments and conclusions.
6. Critical thinking - this is the ability to strictly evaluate the results of mental activity, to subject them to a critical assessment, to discard the wrong decision, to abandon the actions initiated if they contradict the requirements of the task.
7. Breadth of thinking - the ability to cover the issue as a whole, without losing sight of all the data of the corresponding task, as well as the ability to see new problems.
