The Foundation of Human Development: Abstract Thinking

Examples of abstract thinking

Abstract thinking will help prepare a child for adult life. For example, in childhood there is only the awareness that in the future you will have to work, since money is necessary. The child does not yet understand what he will do and does not realize what exactly he wants to do. But he accepts the inevitability of getting a job. Therefore, when he grows up, it is not difficult for him to accept this fact. The child thought about this, so he easily accepted this fact, although he had not encountered this before. The same applies to plans for the future. It is impossible to know what awaits in life in a few years. Fantasies and plans will help you achieve your goals. The future does not yet exist, but there is a desire to make it the way it appears.

Fantasies

Abstract thinking forms the basis of exact sciences, for example, physics and mathematics. Without assumptions and reasoning, it is impossible to prove the theorems on which knowledge is based. A person deals with objects that he cannot see and cannot touch. Numbers and formulas are abstract concepts. Calculations are carried out with them, they are compared, measured, and worked with. Research leads to conclusions

Abstract-symbolic thinking is important for people of science to assimilate information using codes and formulas

Signs that you have developed abstract thinking:

1. You spend a lot of time thinking about big questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” or “What is the nature of consciousness?”

2. You are constantly surprised and wondering why. Most likely, as a child, you annoyed others with your endless questions.

3. You don't like doing anything unless you see a good reason for it. This “just like that” option doesn’t suit you.

4. You really don't like following step-by-step instructions and, most likely, you will figure everything out on your own.

5. You don't like routine and get tired easily if you do the same thing over and over again.

6. When you think about something new, you often compare it with what you already know, even if these ideas seem unrelated to you at first.

7. You can come up with metaphors and analogies and connect ideas in new ways.

Tests to determine the severity of abstract thinking

Before answering the question of how to develop abstract thinking, you need to determine the level of its expression in a person. Psychologists offer a number of techniques that will help determine the level of this reasoning skill in a person. Such techniques include:

• a technique to determine the type of thinking ability. A positive result is an indicator of the predominance of an abstract-logical mindset. Such tests are issued in the form of questionnaires. As a rule, in them a person needs to choose the statement that is most suitable for him. It is also possible to work with various pictures;
• testing to identify cause-and-effect relationships. In these techniques, the subject is given certain conditions on the basis of which he must draw a logically correct conclusion. Typically, such tests are used as terms of non-existent words to determine a person's level of abstraction from explicit details;
• techniques for analyzing proposed word combinations. In the course of such studies, the subject must identify the correct pattern due to which various verbal combinations are combined with each other. Then they need to be extended to the following phrases.

To get accurate results, experts recommend going through several techniques. As a rule, abstract thinking is typical for people prone to self-development. This is owned by people who have dedicated their lives to science:

• mathematics;
• theoretical physicists;
• programmers.

Those with this kind of thinking start from distant concepts and rely on general information. Due to the specifics of such thinking, based only on hypotheses, scientists have made many discoveries in all branches of science.

Specifics of abstract thinking

Scientists identify two main pieces of information about abstraction; in other words, we are talking about a process when the ability to think gradually moves to the awareness of abstract concepts:

1. Abstraction within empirical psychology. The participants in this teaching brought the abstract only to the sensual.
2. Abstraction within the framework of realistic psychology. Scientists who thought in this direction separated the abstract from the sensual. At the same time, they said that it is thought that generates the abstract content of a phenomenon.

Watch a video about the abstract thinking test.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vnt0QeQwNao

Based on this, we can conclude that abstract thinking is characteristic only of people. Speaking about abstract thinking and its forms, one cannot help but talk about the goals this thinking is aimed at. There are two main goals:

1. Formal. In this case, it is meant to identify the main properties that are most important for theoretical analysis.
2. Meaningful. In this case, the calculation of qualities that are of practical importance occurs.

Basic signs of abstract thinking

When studying the issue of abstract thinking, you should pay a lot of attention to becoming familiar with its main features:

• the ability to make the correct conclusion remotely without direct contact with the object;
• synthesis and analysis;
• the ability to find relationships and analyze them;
• identifying precise cause-and-effect relationships;
• the ability to easily operate with concepts that do not exist in the real world;
• there is no need to interact with the external environment in order to identify its patterns;
• searching for the relationship between qualitative and quantitative changes in an object;
• clear systematization of the information received.

Abstract thinking is considered the main tool in logic. Scientists claim that this concept originated within the framework of this science. The main aspect of this type of thinking can be called the possibility of reflection. It is seen as an analysis of one’s own thoughts and behavior patterns as someone else’s in order to rethink them.

A person with developed abstract thinking can:

• think logically;
• make correct conclusions;
• argue reasonedly;
• look for connections between events and objects;
• successfully find favorable conditions for acquiring new knowledge;
• look for rational methods in solving various problems.

Thus, the main feature of this type of thinking is the ability to realize the features of one’s thoughts during active cognitive activity.

Share your opinion on the topic at what age abstract thinking is formed and what its role is in human psychology, in. And also watch a video about the need for abstract thinking.

Formation

The foundations of thinking are laid in a person from birth .
He sees and perceives the world around him and gradually learns to understand what is happening. A few days and months after birth, the baby perceives visual images, hears voices and distinguishes between them, understands where it is cold and warm. At the initial stage of the formation of the apparatus of abstract thinking in a newborn, the brain perceives concrete images that are perceived visually, auditorily or tactilely. Initial thinking is associated with specific objects.

When the baby sees milk, it means it’s time for lunch. He does not categorize toys into animals, people or flowers - the child perceives them as things that can be touched. This stage does not involve any reflection.

Figurative thinking begins to develop with the perception of the first images , the formation of imagination, when the baby systematizes and generalizes things. Thinking does not work at full capacity while the child lacks experience.

Abstractions arise when we reach an age when thinking goes beyond the tangible. The brain develops not only on the basis of what it hears or sees: its activity is based on ideas and concepts about the phenomenon and object that it itself created.

Main signs

Abstract thinking is inherent in all people , but is especially developed among those whose activities are connected with intangible concepts (owners of an analytical mind). Its subtype is abstract spatial thinking.

As an example, you can imagine the surface of Mars: no one has been there, so it is not known exactly what it looks like, but everyone can imagine it. Abstractions become the basis: frames of science fiction films about the galaxy, paintings, read science fiction books.

Types of abstractions

There are 6 groups of abstractions:

1. Generalizing : in a particular phenomenon, the general characteristic is highlighted, and individual properties are omitted.
2. Isolating : Focuses attention on a specific component of a phenomenon.
3. Idealizing : physical characteristics are replaced by an ideal template that has no flaws.
4. Abstraction of constructivization : ill-defined phenomena gain clarity.
5. Primitive-sensual : some properties are highlighted, others are ignored.
6. Abstraction of actual infinity : sets without ends are defined as finite.

The following abstractions are distinguished by purpose::

• substantive : identifies properties that exist autonomously from phenomena;
• formal : when considering a phenomenon, it comes from external manifestations that do not exist outside this phenomenon.

Operating with abstractions of different groups allows a person to become aware of phenomena in the surrounding world that are not recognized by the senses.

Means of language expression transmit general patterns of phenomena from generation to generation. Forms of abstract thinking are responsible for this.

Features of forms

Abstract thinking conveys to humanity knowledge and experience , which over time are organized into a system. The world is full of intangible phenomena that are not subject to sensation, hearing, sight or tactile sensations. Their presence in human life necessitates putting these phenomena into forms.

Abstract thinking is divided into 3 forms:

1. A concept is a form that reflects the general and most significant properties and characteristics. There are everyday and scientific concepts. The former are formed based on personal experience, the basis for creating the latter is knowledge.
2. Judgment is a form with two varieties - affirmation and negation. A judgment includes a predicate, that is, negation or affirmation, and a subject. There are private, individual and general judgments.
3. Inference is a form that arises as a result of the analysis of judgments. Inference is the basis for conclusions from which new knowledge is formed.

Practical use cases

Abstract thinking shows a person how to solve a problem in an innovative way . This is illustrated by Winnie the Pooh's attempt to take honey from the bees. But abstract thinking is not limited to examples from fairy tales.

Let's look at examples:

1. Numbers . If on paper calculations are written in signs and numbers, then in a person’s head calculations arise on the basis of images. People with developed thinking (people of science have abstract symbolic thinking) do not need visual calculation.
2. Life planning . This example is not complete without the use of imagination. A person got a well-paid job and has not yet received a salary, but is already thinking about how to manage the money.
3. Idealization . It is especially evident in relationships when young people, having barely met, endow each other with qualities that may not actually exist. Sometimes an invented image exists in your head all your life.

The need to develop abstract thinking

Abstract thinking is formed from childhood .
The child comes up with fairy tales and fables, showing imagination. He abstracts from specific facts and manipulates the characteristics of an object in his head. A teenage schoolchild with developed abstract thinking masters mathematics and exact sciences. The university program offers solutions to abstract problems, and this type of thinking is again required.

In the profession, it helps a specialist to operate with a large amount of data, tasks, properties, which are divided into groups relative to their parameters. Using abstract thinking in everyday life, a person solves problems and difficult situations.

Professions based on creativity, the search for the previously unknown, when you need to break away from existing information, are based on abstract thinking.

Forms of abstract thinking

Through abstract thinking, a person, in the process of reasoning, discovers new facets of the object being studied and expands his knowledge about the surrounding reality.

Forms of abstract thinking:

• concept;
• judgment;
• inference.

Concept

The concept reflects the result of human intellectual activity, as a result of which a general understanding of the essence of an object is formed based on its essential features. Essential features are those features that allow an object to be classified into a particular group. For example, the concept “Car” has a number of insignificant features, such as color, brand, engine power. These signs vary from car to car. It doesn't matter what color the car is, it's still a car. But this concept also has essential features that allow it to be classified in the “Cars” group: the presence of an engine and four wheels.

The definition of a concept is the establishment of all essential features. Separately, the features are necessary, but together they are considered sufficient for the formation of a concept.

For example, the presence of an engine and four wheels separately are necessary signs - a car will not move without wheels, without a motor it is no longer a car, but a trolley. Together, these signs are sufficient to call an object on wheels with a motor a car.

A concept can be everyday, obtained from personal experience, and scientific, obtained through teaching by someone.

Ways to define concepts:

• analysis - decomposition of the subject being studied into individual components;
• synthesis - composing a whole object from disparate parts;
• generalization - the unification of objects that are similar in certain characteristics;
• comparison - determining the differences or similarities of objects;
• abstraction - concentration on some properties and removal from others.

Rice. 2. Basic mental operations: analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, abstraction.

Judgment

Judgment is a form of thinking that reproduces not a set of properties of an object, as a concept, but connections and interactions between objects. Judgments are expressed in the form of affirmation or denial.

Judgments can be simple, for example, “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is a composer,” or complex, “Spring has come, migratory birds have returned from warmer climes.”

A proposition can be said to be true or false.

Inference

An inference allows you to construct a new conclusion from one or more premises.

For example, “Vegetables can be eaten,” “Onions are a vegetable,” “Onions can be eaten.”

Components of logical thinking

Having realized the tasks and forms of logical thinking, we can clearly formulate a definition of this concept. This is a process with evidentiary properties. The goal is to obtain a conclusion from the premises. You should also consider its types in detail.

Figurative-logical thinking

This variety is otherwise called visual-figurative thinking. The situation is presented visually, operations are performed on the images of the objects included in it. In essence, it is imagination, which allows you to give a variety of vivid characteristics. Such mental activity and logical thinking begin to develop from the age of 1.5 years in childhood. You can check the level of development using the Raven Test - an auxiliary questionnaire. It allows you to derive your IQ, which is essentially a diagnostic of logical thinking with an objective assessment.

Development from 1936 by D. Raven and R. Penrose calculates IQ without depending on a person’s education or social affiliation. The progressive matrix scale is based on images of figures and does not include text. There are 60 tables with pictures connected by some dependence. The missing figure is located at the bottom of the image among 6 - 8 others. A person must establish a pattern, choose the right element that is missing. Tables are offered according to the principle of increasing task complexity.

Abstract logical thinking

This type uses non-existent categories - abstractions through which they think. Relationships are modeled not only for real objects, but also between created figurative representations. It is this kind of thinking that includes the forms: concept, judgment, inference.

Verbal and logical thinking

This type uses speech structures and language means. Verbal or verbal-logical thinking involves the ability to speak competently with the skillful use of the thought process. These are public appearances, arguments, and other situations where thoughts are expressed verbally.

Where is it used?

Children, with the help of abstract thinking, draw, design, sculpt, understand the meaning of riddles, can solve problems, and coherently express their thoughts when describing events. During school years, this type of mental activity helps schoolchildren master mathematics, which requires the ability to operate with a lot of data, divide them into groups, and look for relationships.

Abstract thinking is used in logic, physics, astronomy and other exact sciences, where one must be able to measure, count, calculate, and combine elements into one group. It is necessary for psychologists, philosophers, writers, engineers. Time management is unthinkable without it.

In everyday life, people also constantly use abstract-logical mental activity. Examples of abstract thinking reflect everyday human thought processes. Planning often intersects in the imagination with dreams and fantasies. Young people looking for a job can come up with so many things that, when faced with reality, they cannot stand the conditions offered to them. So girls, waiting for a prince on a white horse, mentally endow their future chosen one with unrealistic traits. This inevitably leads to disappointment in the future.

Examples of abstract thinking

The clearest example of abstract thinking is the exact sciences, such as astronomy, physics and mathematics, etc. Most often it serves as their base. A person does not see numbers and formulas as such, but he can calculate, measure, count, combine objects into groups and find their quantity.

The same goes for life itself. What is life? This is when there is a body in which consciousness functions. We cannot give an exact definition of the concept of “life,” but we can say with precision when a person is alive and when he is dead.

Abstract thinking manifests itself no less clearly when we look to the future. We don't know what awaits us, but we have plans and goals, aspirations and desires. If we couldn't dream and imagine, we wouldn't be able to make plans for the future. Now we are making efforts to achieve results. Our movement through life has a direction. Abstract thinking gives us tactics and strategy that lead to the desired future. This reality does not exist yet, but we are trying to make it correspond to our ideas.

When considering examples of abstract thinking, one cannot help but recall idealization. Many idealize both the world in which they live and the people who surround them. There are, for example, men who dream of “possessing” a woman, and at the same time do not even think that one can only possess an inanimate object or a non-thinking being. There are also women who are waiting for a “prince on a white horse” and do not pay attention to what many “princes” are like in real life.

There is also an excellent example of false judgments. Let's touch on relationships again: some women believe that all men are “bad,” but this judgment is based on bitter experience - situations in which men betrayed these women. In any case, a woman identifies men as a separate class with its own specific properties, and therefore she can attribute to all of them what was manifested in one representative.

From false judgments, among other things, false conclusions often arise. For example, a house may be called “dysfunctional” because of faulty wiring, poor heating, or unfriendly neighbors. Based on his emotional discomfort that arises in the current conditions, a person makes unambiguous judgments, from which conclusions are formed that form a conclusion that distorts reality - after all, the house may well be “normal”, you just need to bring everything in it to mind.

There are many similar examples that can be given, but they will all say that abstract thinking (including the false judgments and inferences that arise from it) constitutes a colossal part of our everyday thought process. It manifests differently for everyone, and there will always be components that require development. Someone may be good at systematizing information, but find it difficult to isolate individual elements of events. Someone can perfectly find correspondences between the particular and the general, but have difficulty specifying something, etc. And in order to train your brain and improve your intellectual abilities, you need to develop abstract thinking.

Development methods for people of different age groups

Children

Abstract thinking develops automatically in children . To improve this process, parents work with the child. How to develop the ability for abstract thinking? It is important to begin development in the first years of life when the brain is forming and growing. The child must move from working with specific objects to operating with conventional concepts and expand his horizons.

The following exercises will be useful for this::

1. Spread a blot on a sheet of paper with ink or paints. Together with your child, create a drawing from it: the sun, a person’s face or a flower.
2. Come up with original names together with your baby. While walking down the street, give the object 3 interesting names. This can be applied to animals and people.
3. Create a home theater. For performances, you can create costumes together from scrap materials.
4. Playing shadow theater is an effective remedy.

In addition to exercises, crosswords, puzzles, anagrams, and riddles will be useful. Logical games will also develop abstract thinking (from low to intermediate level, etc.): chess, checkers, puzzles, dominoes.

At first it will be difficult for the child to study, but constant training will quickly lead to the necessary skills: the level of abstract thinking in children develops much faster than in adults.

How to develop abstract thinking in children, watch the video:

Adults

Logic and abstraction in thought processes develop more complexly in an adult than in a child : it has already formed and has lost its initial flexibility.
It is more difficult for an adult to perceive and assimilate knowledge (can lead to a low level of thinking). Performing special exercises will develop creativity and the ability to think abstractly. They must be performed with your eyes closed:

1. Introduce the people you had a chance to communicate with during the day. If possible, remember in the smallest detail what they were wearing, how they spoke and gesticulated, what pitch and timbre their voice was, what facial expression they spoke with. At the same time, reproduce your own feelings.
2. Begin to imagine emotions: happiness, joy, anger, disappointment, melancholy, tenderness, calm. The image of each emotion must be recreated in the brain.
3. Provide an image of terms, concepts or ideas that are interesting to a person. At the same time, you need to monitor the emotions and sensations that accompany fantasies.

The exercises should be supplemented by solving puzzles, logical problems, Sudoku, and rebuses. It’s worth inventing new words that don’t exist, or drawing.

Books will help adults effectively and quickly improve their ability to think abstractly:

1. Kirill Berendeev “Abstract thinking”.
2. Andrey Rodionov "Intellect-training".
3. Philip Carter "Grow Your Mind"
4. Edward de Bono "Teach yourself to think."
5. John Medina "Brain Rules"

An interesting practice is to read books diagonally, upside down, from the last page to the first. These methods help develop the ability to think abstractly.

1.6. Types of thinking

Thinking is a complex and multifaceted mental activity, so its types are distinguished on different grounds.

Firstly, depending on the extent to which the thought process is based on perception, idea or concept, three main types of thinking are distinguished:

objective-effective (or visually-effective), visual-figurative and abstract.

These are not only stages in the development of thinking, but also its different forms that are inherent in an adult and play an important role in mental activity. You can speed up and intensify the passage of certain stages of the development of thinking, but you cannot bypass any of them without damaging the mental make-up of the individual as a whole:

- objective-active thinking - thinking associated with practical, direct actions with an object (for young children, thinking about objects means acting, manipulating with them);

– visual-figurative thinking, which is based on perception or representation (typical for preschoolers and partly for younger schoolchildren);

– abstract thinking with concepts devoid of direct clarity inherent in perception and ideas (characterizes older schoolchildren and adults).

Secondly, by the nature of the thinking process we can talk about inferential thinking; which goes step by step, and intuitive thinking, where the final result is achieved without knowing or thinking through the intermediate stages.

Thirdly, if we take the nature of the results of thinking as a basis, then we can have reproductive thinking (when we clearly follow the train of thought of another person, for example, the proof of a mathematical theorem in a textbook, we perfectly understand the flow and logic of the thought of a writer, scientist, we understand the most complex modern knowledge etc.) and creative thinking (if we create new ideas, objects, original solutions and evidence).

Fourthly, thinking is divided according to the effectiveness of control into critical and non-critical.

Fifthly, depending on the focus on practice or theory, we can talk about theoretical and practical thinking. B.M. Teplov showed that theoretical and practical thinking are differently related to practice. And the point is not that one of them is connected with practice and the other is not, but that the nature of this connection is different. The work of theoretical thinking is aimed mainly at finding general patterns and principles of development, organization and other phenomena and facts of reality. The work of practical thinking is mainly aimed at solving particular, specific problems of any scale.

That is, in most cases we have to process and organize information in such a way as to cope with the everyday difficulties that confront us in the most logical way. In this case, the role of thinking is to develop mental strategies based on symbolic procedures.

Methods of thinking

Inference, as the most complex form of thinking, is obtained as a result of reasoning. Depending on the approach in reasoning, the following methods of obtaining conclusions are distinguished:

• deduction - when reasoning is carried out from the general to the specific;
• induction - reasoning from the particular to the general;
• analogy - in reasoning, information is transferred from one object to another.

The famous writer Arthur Conan Doyle, in his famous stories about Sherlock Holmes, mentions the methods of deduction and induction used by the famous detective.

Rice. 3. Portrait of Sherlock Holmes.

How to develop abstract thinking. What is it and why, 101!

You need to think abstractly, broadly. What does it mean? Dont clear. In the article 1timer.ru we will consider what abstract thinking is in simple language.

Concrete thinking is unambiguous. Example: Vasya, if you don’t remove this brick from the edge, then Andryukha will hit it with his elbow and we will smash those cars down there.

Abstract thinking is ambiguous, imprecise. Example: It is possible to die from a brick falling on your head, bricks are heavy and due to negligence people are killed every day.

The product of abstract thinking is conclusions that come from generalizations. Unnecessary information is cut off. This speeds up the process of analyzing the situation with the brain.

When thinking abstractly:

• A person tries to connect the general properties of various phenomena, events and objects into a logical chain;
• The thinking process is limited by the amount of knowledge a person has. It represents "internal dialogue."

By processing the information received, a person forms new knowledge and consolidates it in his memory. During abstract thinking, a person uses tools: concepts, evaluation criteria, generalizations, analysis, information, knowledge.

Abstract thinking tools help build cause-and-effect relationships. Abstract thinking allows you to find correspondences between seemingly unrelated objects and phenomena.

A distinctive feature of abstract thinking is the ability to separate from conventions and particulars, to evaluate the situation honestly.

If you don't develop abstract thinking, you're a fool!

Why celebrate the little things and ignore the big things if it doesn't produce results? People with high intelligence possess abstract thinking; thanks to abstract thinking, the horizon of perception of the surrounding world expands. It pushes the boundaries of judgment, inference and conclusions.

6 types of abstraction that everyone needs to know

Abstract thinking is closely related to imagination. Their origins are sensory knowledge. In psychology, there are various classifications of types of abstraction. All of them are based on 2 processes: distraction and replenishment. There are abstractions:

Isolating or analytical. Record the properties of objects. For example, “heat capacity”, “moisture resistance”, “truthful”, etc.;

Generalizing. Formulate the general properties of objects. Example: “sour”, “green”, “hard”, etc.;

Constructivism. Develops realistic ways to solve problems;

Idealizing. Exaggerating the merits of objects: “absolutely pure water”, “ideal figure”, etc.;

Actual-infinite. Eliminates the possibility of fixing anything;

Primitively sensual

During the process of thinking, they divert attention from some feelings and concentrate it on other emotions.

Practical examples of abstract logical thinking

In the life of every person you can find many examples of abstract thinking. All of them show an extraordinary approach to solving a particular problem. A striking illustration of abstract thinking is the example of how Winnie the Pooh in a balloon tried to get honey from the hollow of the “wrong” bees. You can find examples of abstract thinking not only in the lives of fairy-tale characters.

Abstract thinking example #1. Numbers

Mathematical calculations on paper are described using various numbers and symbols. How do calculations happen in a person’s head without paper and pen? The result of the calculations arises from playing with images. Many people don't even try to visualize a picture of step-by-step calculations.

Abstract thinking example #2. Life planning

This element of human life always includes elements of fantasy. For example, someone bought a lottery ticket and, even before the drawing begins, begins to make plans to spend the unearned winnings.

Abstract thinking example #3. Idealization

It happens that men and women endow their partners with qualities that they do not have (and never had). The ideal image he comes up with can live in their minds for the rest of their lives.

Development of abstract thinking in children: why is it necessary, methods and methods.

The development of abstract thinking in a child is a task that parents should not ignore.

Because the ability to think abstractly, in abstract categories and images is important for successful learning at school, it helps to identify hidden talents in a child, promotes the development of creativity, imagination, and analyze emerging problems not one-sidedly, but looking at them from different angles.

It is quite simple to develop abstract thinking in children: the main thing is to know what techniques to use in games and activities, how to properly motivate them for lessons, to arouse and maintain interest in them.

Studying the definition

Abstract thinking is a term that denotes a method of understanding the world that:

• Starts from complex images, forms of concepts, comparisons, figurative meanings;

• Allows you to draw conclusions based on general characteristics or on the basis of acquired experience;

• Examines the smallest elements in the subject of study as independent and autonomous, and not part of the whole.

Having studied the above definition, we can draw a simple conclusion: it is this type of intellectual activity that initiates the preschooler’s desire for self-development, arouses in the child an interest in understanding the world and obtaining new knowledge from different areas.

A simple example of the ability for abstract thinking in children: a child was given a car that he plays with at home. When a child sees a real car on the street, he says “bibi” or another word for a car.

Thus, he applied his ability to think abstractly by seeing commonalities between the toy and the real car.

IMPORTANT: Childhood is the best time for the development of imaginative thinking, because it is during the period from 2 to 11 years that the human brain develops most actively!

Impact on children's development

If you carefully observe children for some time, you will notice: kids are constantly immersed in their own imaginary world. They fantasize, invent stories, play, creating situations and characters that do not exist in reality, talk with toys and plants.

This is how abstract thinking works in practice, and without this type of intellectual activity, a child is not able to develop harmoniously and fully.

Abstract abstract thinking contributes to the development of various creative talents, the rapid assimilation of new information, helps to apply acquired knowledge in practice, solve complex and ambiguous problems, and find a way out of difficult life situations.

Basic forms

In order to develop a child’s ability to think abstractly, he needs to be taught and parents must also properly prepare for such activities. In particular, learn that abstract thinking has forms. Among them:

Concept

This form of abstract logical thinking implies a thought that identifies and generalizes various objects according to common or individual characteristics.

So, for example, the concept of “furniture” will include objects that make up a person’s everyday life and help ensure comfort. A child with developed abstract thinking will include tables, chairs, cabinets, and sofas in this category.

The child must learn to relate different objects to general concepts even in preschool age, otherwise difficulties may arise with a full knowledge of the world around him.

Judgment

Judgment is that form of abstract thinking that is present in the affirmation/denial of any information about an object, its properties, and relationships with other objects. Judgments can be simple or complex. Thus, a child’s statement “mother works” is an example of a simple proposition. But the conclusion that it is snowing because winter has come is a complex judgment.

Also, judgments can be true and false. In the first version, the conclusion is made based on an objective assessment of reality (the sun is shining because it is day), in the second, the basis is the desire to see an object only from one’s point of view (the sun is shining because I want it so ).

Inference

It is formed on the basis of several judgments and requires the sequential passage of three stages:

• Premise (initial judgment about the subject);

• Conclusions (new judgments about the subject);

• Conclusion.

The ability to make inferences is important for a child’s successful education in preschool and school institutions, and also helps him make the right conclusions in life situations regarding relationships with other people and interaction with the outside world.

Effective development methods

There are many different techniques that allow you to effectively develop the ability to think abstractly in preschoolers:

Associations

A simple game method that is easily applied in practice. You can play association games with your child anywhere: at home, on a walk, on the way to kindergarten. All a parent needs to do is ask the child to come up with all possible associations for everything he sees, for any object or even a word.

For example, an adult says the word “car”, and the child must select for it all the definitions associated with it in any way: passenger car, red car, trip, journey, and so on.

IMPORTANT: The older the child, the more complex the concepts should be to build associations. These can be concepts relating to relationships between people (family), natural phenomena (winter, autumn, thunderstorm), emotions (joy, sadness), phenomena of social life (country, Motherland).

If the child finds the game interesting, then with systematic practice you can get a quick positive result. After just a few weeks, the child will begin to understand the world around him much better, remember and assimilate information, and build correct cause-and-effect relationships.

Shadow play

A method that children like and works well in terms of developing abstract thinking. At its core, it is very similar to an association game.

Shadows help create a variety of images, thinking about which the child will develop not only the ability to think in abstract categories, but also memory, imagination, speech, and attentiveness.

To apply the teaching methodology in practice, there is no need to buy a ready-made theater: it can be easily made at home. All you need for classes: a bright table lamp, a screen (can be replaced with a sheet or just a white, clean wall), various figures, easily cut out of paper using a stencil. You can also create shadows from your hands by simply folding them in a certain way.

You need to show the child a shadow and ask what he sees, ask him to come up with a story about the shadow image. You can complicate the game as follows: ask your child to use his hands to create some animal or object and show it in the shadow theater.

Classification

A good gaming technique that can be used daily. Its essence is in the selection of objects according to certain characteristics.

For example, you can put a box of toys in front of your child and offer to sort through them, dividing them into: cubes, dolls (soldiers), cars. At the next lesson, change the classification, offering to make a choice by color, shape, and other characteristics.

Question game

Parents should ask their child as many questions as possible on a variety of topics. Why did he do something? Why did he do this? What is he drawing? What game does he play, with what characters?

What does the baby think about today, the weather? The more a child analyzes the world and his actions, the more actively his ability to make judgments and inferences - the main forms of abstract thinking - will develop.

Writing proposals

You need to take a few unrelated words and ask the child to make a sentence with them. For example: teapot, cat, cube.

You need to accept any proposals from your baby, no matter how bizarre they are, simple or complex. When one sentence is composed and let’s say it turns out like this: “when the kettle boiled, the cat dropped the cube,” invite your son or daughter to develop the story, come up with its ending.

This game works great for developing not only abstract, but also logical thinking.

Eliminating unnecessary things

For this game you can use pictures. You need to choose two pictures that are combined by some characteristic and one that is inappropriate. For example: pictures with an apple, a pear and the third picture with a house. Let the child remove the extra one and tell him why he removed it.

For older children, the task can be made more complicated: offer to remove not an extra picture, but an extra word, and be sure to ask why this particular choice was made.

Unusual uses of items

The game perfectly develops abstract thinking and imagination. The lesson is carried out like this: they choose an object and ask the child to come up with an unusual use for it. For example, an ordinary plate can be a hat, a rain umbrella, a shield, a swimming pool.

Search for opposites

A technique that promotes the development of the ability to think logically and abstractly. It is simple to apply it in practice: a specific object is named, and the child must match it with another object with opposite properties.

For example, an adult says “ice cream”, the correct answer could be “pie or soup”, because ice cream is cold, and pies or soup are hot. Ask your child to explain his choice.

This exercise is good because it teaches you to analyze all the properties of objects, describe them and draw a conclusion based on the analysis that allows you to correctly choose the opposite.

How to organize and conduct classes

Children of preschool age are not distinguished by perseverance and concentration. They will acquire these qualities as they grow up and with the help of regular classes, and therefore for lessons on the development of abstract thinking to produce the desired results, the child must be interested and retain this interest.

You should not start classes when the child is tired from walking and playing with peers. The best time for lessons is in the morning, after breakfast or in the evening, when all family members can take part in intellectual educational games.

You should not use the same technique all the time; games should be alternated so that the baby does not get bored with them. Naturally, tasks should be updated: complicate them, add variety.

Otherwise, the child will study without interest and be capricious. Select the theme of the games in accordance with the age and interests of your child.

It is important not to take the position of a strict, demanding teacher in educational games, but to take an active part in them. During the study period, it is better to put aside all housework and not be distracted by them.

Active interest and participation of parents help motivate the child to engage in activities, perceive them not as a necessity, but as pleasure and an opportunity to learn new things.

If we talk about the duration of classes, they should not be so long that the child gets tired. If you notice that the child is losing interest and perseverance, take a break.

As a conclusion

It is not difficult to develop abstract thinking in children and it is not necessary to involve professional teachers.

Classes are easy to organize and conduct at home, during walks. The main thing to remember is one simple rule: to get positive results from the lessons, they must be regular, varied and interesting to the child.

Visually effective type

This is the earliest form of mental activity that develops in humans. It is typical for children under 3 years of age. Mental operations are based on manipulations with really existing tangible objects. Each problem is solved immediately at the practical stage, during manipulations with objects. Thinking disorders of this type are rare. Mainly with severe mental retardation. They lead to the fact that the process of development of brain activity as a whole slows down or stops.

How and when does developmental disorder develop?

This is the first stage in the development of mental activity. The time frame for its development to begin varies. Some experts indicate that a child is capable of simple mental operations from birth. Others say that the development of mental processes is closely related to the ability to move and appears simultaneously with a decrease in muscle hypertonicity. Estimated time frame: 6 months – 1 year.

Vivid and uncontrolled manifestations of visual-effective thinking in children over 3 years of age, adolescents and adults indicate serious mental disorders - mental retardation, regression in psychosis. The patient exhibits a pronounced desire to grab, break and hide surrounding objects.

Manual or visual-effective thinking of children and ways of its development

This type of solving life problems got its name due to the fact that the child constantly performs some kind of manipulation with surrounding objects. The most striking manifestations are the baby grabbing toys, knocking them, testing them, licking them, trying to take them apart and put them back together.

It makes no sense to wean a child from these manipulations; a much more important task for parents is to provide the child with toys that he can disassemble and assemble without damaging them. An excellent option is sorters. This educational toy has many functions and modifications. The principle of operation is usually similar - assemble, disassemble, correlate colors, edges, shapes. This is both a puzzle and a construction set in one toy. Check out the selection of smart toys in different prices and variations.

Visually effective type of thinking in adults

In adults, such mental operations are involved in cases where the result of actions cannot be predicted on the basis of existing inferences. A striking example is mastering an unfamiliar technique. Arrangement of furniture in the room or objects on the table, selection of necessary materials according to shape, texture, subjective sensations.