The human brain is a complex construction, still not fully understood. We use its very small potential, slowly improving and sometimes not trying to discover new opportunities for ourselves. But even this small part of the work of the main organ of the central nervous system impresses with its intricate mechanism: the operations of thinking, its types and manifestations in all people are so different, while at the same time obeying the same laws of formation.
Comparison
We do this simple operation every day without noticing it ourselves. Indeed, in order to have an idea of a particular subject, we mentally isolate its main characteristics, highlighting them and emphasizing them. For example, to understand the reason for the unsuccessful interview, the journalist focuses on what it was, under what conditions it was recorded, its features. Highlighting these points is always associated with the awareness of the task, by comparing it with other more successful works.
We begin to apply
logical operations of thinking from the cradle. The same comparison is used by the baby just born. According to certain signs - voice, smell, touch - he distinguishes mom from other people.
Comparing objects and phenomena, we draw conclusions about their differences and similarities, opposites and identities. As a result, we better know the world around us. Thinking operations teach us, develop us. For example, comparing interviews with reporting, a student journalist determines the essence and form of each of these genres, which allows him to separate, distinguish and reproduce them in the future.
Abstraction
The main operations of thinking include this brain function, thanks to which a person is able to not only highlight individual characteristics, as well as the properties of phenomena and objects, but also be able to recognize them abstractly. On the basis of abstraction, a concept is formed. For example, we all know that food gives us strength and health. Thanks to the daily consumption of meat, milk and cereals, we live, move, work. The main property of food is saturation and enrichment of the body with necessary substances. Abstracting from the concept of "food", we, speaking of the need to satisfy hunger, already mean food, without even pronouncing their name.
Abstraction helps a person to establish logical connections between objects. Going deeper into a particular phenomenon, we see its essence, purpose, direction and task. Abstraction helps a person to think in a generalized, holistic way, drawing conclusions and conclusions. Operations and
forms of thinking, such as comparison and abstraction, contribute to the knowledge of the truth.
Generalization
This function of our brain is closely connected with the previous one; together they form our thinking. Mental operations, abstraction and generalization allow a person to recognize and study the world around him on the basis of characteristics. The first type of brain activity distinguishes one property of an object that is characteristic only of it. Based on it, we conclude what is at stake. Instead, generalization is also a property, but characteristic not only for this phenomenon, but also for others. For example, hitting a boxer is sharp. We knock out such a definition already on the basis of our knowledge about the sharpness that formed during our other life situations: when watching football, shows about snakes, feeling gusts of wind on the street.
That is, we learned what sharpness is by analyzing all the characteristics of these phenomena. They were able to determine that this is a process that begins with a quick and strong impact. Only this one operation reflects in our minds the essence of the phenomenon: a boxer is defeated during a knockout precisely because of the sharpness of his opponent.
Concretization
Another brain property associated with abstraction. Concretization is its direct opposite. If at one end of the stick we have abstraction and generalization, then at the other is concretization. The first can be individual, the second is common to all. In the educational process, concretization means a specific example for an established position.
To correctly understand reality, you need to be able to master all these processes. Indeed, concretization does not allow mental activity to go far from an object or activity. Contemplating phenomena or events, we clearly understand their essence. Without concretization, all the knowledge gained remains bare, abstract, and therefore useless. For example, having studied the theory of the allocation of water from alcohol, we will never fully understand the essence of the process until we see with our own eyes what actually happens during this action. The brain concretizes all the knowledge gained through vision, touch and smell. A person also often leads facts to concretize an event.
Analysis
Used by man every day in the same way as other thinking operations. This is a separate property of the brain when it decomposes into the components of a phenomenon or object. This is actually dismemberment, disassembly into parts. For example, an athlete's run. Mentally, we can distinguish its elements such as start, run itself and finish. This will be the analysis of this process of activity.
By analyzing in more depth and detail, we can also highlight the sharpness at the start, the speed of the athlete, the rhythm of breathing. These components are also included in the overall picture called "running." By analyzing, we learn more deeply the world that surrounds us. Indeed, during this process of thinking, we select not any parts, but only those that are characteristic of a particular phenomenon. During the same run, a person waves his hands differently, he has a different expression on his face. But this will already be the concretization of the athlete, and not the run itself. Only essential elements for each object or phenomenon need to be distinguished.
Synthesis
This is mental activity, the exact opposite of analysis. Using synthesis, we, on the contrary, make up the general picture of what is happening from specific details. It gives us the opportunity to recreate events based on individual facts. A person receives from the versatile details an integral concept of what is happening. It's like collecting puzzles: substitute one or the other part, throw away the excess, attach the necessary one.
Basic thinking operations, such as analysis and synthesis, always go hand in hand. Only in this case it must be understood that none of these concepts dominates, since both of them are important. Any analysis involves synthesis and vice versa. A very striking example of synthesis is the investigation of a crime. The investigator brings together facts, studies evidence, interviews people, displays a chain of events and actions in his mind in order to come to the correct conclusion: who, when and why broke the law. The whole picture of the crime he created consists of a mass of small, at first glance, insignificant elements. Alone, they do not represent value, but brought together can change the course of certain events.
Types of thinking
Human mental activity has other manifestations. For example, it can be of three types, each of which helps to generalize and at the same time concretize the surrounding world:
- Effective thinking based on direct perception of objects. Occurs during practical activities. This is the basis for all other types of thinking.
- Figurative. At the same time, a person relies on images, imagination and perception.
- Abstract logical. It occurs during the separation of the connections and properties of individual objects and takes the form of reasoning and abstract concepts.
All types and operations of thinking are closely interconnected, we can say, are woven into a single node. For example, when describing the same historical events, words are based on images, and recreation in the mind of images is inherently based on read or heard phrases. Thinking operations at the same time also take part in the process, making it individual for each person. Thanks to various types of mental activity, we are opening up new horizons of knowledge.
Forms of mental activity
Each of our thoughts has not only content, but also an outer shell. That is, the basic operations of thinking are always expressed in a certain form:
- Concept. Reflects the characteristics, properties of objects and phenomena, their relationship. At the same time, concepts are concrete and abstract, general and individual.
- Judgment. Expresses a denial or affirmation of something. Reflects the connection between events and phenomena. Judgments are false or true.
- Inference. This is the same conclusion drawn from a number of judgments. Inferences can be inductive (logical inference from particular to general) and deductive (from general to particular).
Operations and forms of thinking are the main way of perceiving and cognizing the world. Without the hard work of the brain, a person would remain a “vegetable”, unable to think, imagine, feel, move.
Of course, this is not the limit of the possibilities of "gray matter". With the development and improvement of it in the future, the discovery of new types, forms and operations of thinking is possible.