The mechanism of thinking works through analysis through synthesis. First, the object is compared with others, and then new ones are distinguished from qualities characteristic of it. In the process of reflection, qualitative connections are again and again revealed, until their supply of human knowledge is exhausted. In synthesis, perception plays a key role.
For many centuries, scientists have tried to classify thinking in psychology.
In a historical context, humanity first mastered practical activities. Mental skills developed much later. Nevertheless, in the age of highly intelligent technologies, the constructive way of thinking remains practical. A specific type of mental activity is designed to solve specific tasks and is based on the perception of objects. So think young children. Therefore, they disassemble toys into components. They are looking for someone who turns the wheels.
Thinking in the psychology of the visual-figurative type works during the perception of the surrounding reality. In the primitive version, preschool children use visual-figurative thinking, who are not so attracted to the disassembly process as the magical power of their own imagination. After all, the supply of concepts is still small, the term "visual-figurative thinking" is often replaced by a logical-sign.
Verbal-logical thinking in psychology is the interaction between logical operations and concepts. It is characterized by the ability to learn significant patterns without a clear, reliable connection with reality.
Abstract logical thinking tends to go beyond the boundaries of sensory knowledge. From the characteristics of the object or situation, the subject selects only the important ones, leaving the details and secondary features without proper attention.
The formation of abstract thinking in order to assimilate concepts in the educational process takes place in parallel with the improvement of visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking, because all types are successive stages in the development of human thinking in the context of phylogenesis and ontogenesis.
Thinking in psychology is distinguished by function:
- critical thinking is aimed at constructing logical conclusions, at making comprehensively informed decisions. A person knows how to analyze social phenomena, work with information, following the exact algorithm:
definition of a problem;
assessment of facts, separation and separation of opinions;
accounting for all known evidence;
wording of the conclusion.
Thus, the psychology of critical thinking consists in the ability to adequately evaluate facts, to separate information of an emotional nature from them, in order to accept them as evidence. Thus, an independent opinion is formed. It should be borne in mind that in the natural order, the appearance of new evidence sometimes changes the conclusions and the way to solve the problem;
- creative thinking is aimed at the discovery of new knowledge, the creation of spiritual values based on their own ideas. The features of a creative person are determined by his psychology, thinking, which goes beyond the framework of acquired concepts, terms, and laws. For creativity, the characteristic transfer of the mechanism or quality of one system or object to another plane, where previously no such combination was observed. At one glance, the creative person grasps the important in the details or concocts the missing details.
By the nature of the task, thinking can be theoretical or practical:
- The basis of theoretical thinking is the use of rules and laws;
- practical thinking consists of conclusions and judgments, already confirmed by experience. The task of practical thinking includes the transformation of reality according to an algorithm: goal, plan, project and scheme.