A comprehensive, deep, multi-faceted knowledge of the world is impossible without a higher cognitive process - thinking. In psychology, there are several types of thinking, differing, in the first place, in content: abstract, visual-effective and visual-figurative thinking. In addition, there are also such, the main feature of which is the nature of the tasks: theoretical and practical, and what includes some kind of originality of thinking is classified into: creative and reproductive.
Formation of visual-figurative thinking
The essence of visual-figurative thinking consists in solving the tasks posed by means of representation, images (the latter are stored in operational and short-term memory). In the simplest form, it manifests itself in a child of preschool age and junior school (4-7 years). In this period, there is a transition from visual-effective to the type of thinking we are considering. The baby is no longer required, as before, to touch the new object to touch it with his hands. The main thing is the ability to clearly perceive it, to represent it.
It is important to note that this kind of thinking is present among architects, fashion designers, poets, perfumers, artists. Its main feature is that a person perceives an object in terms of its versatility, skillfully combines the unusual properties of the object.
Study of visual-figurative thinking
The Swiss psychologist Piaget conducted experiments, thanks to which it was possible to conclude that the children think in visual images, not guided by the concepts. So, a group of children at the age of 7 years showed two balls that were made of dough and had the same volume. The kid, having examined the objects in detail, claimed that they are the same. Next, the researcher in front of the whole audience turned one of the balls into a flat cake. The children, in turn, saw that the ball simply changed its shape, not a single piece was added to it, but despite this, they were of the opinion that the experimenter increased the amount of the test in a flat ball.
Psychologists explain this by the fact that children of this age are unaccustomed to use certain concepts to explain what happened. In most cases, their thinking depends on their perception . So, when the kids look at the ball, changed in shape and occupying more space on the table surface, they think that they added a dough to this cake. This is due to their thinking in the form of visual images.
How to develop visual-figurative thinking?
Even in the writings of Aristotle, the importance of the development of this kind of thinking was noted. Creating a mental image helps the individual to be focused on the result, to strive to achieve the planned, allows you to be oriented in your own actions. It is it that helps to activate the creative potential that is inherent in each of us. Those who have developed imaginative thinking are able to think faster than those who are dominated by abstract memory (for example, the speed of the first kind of thinking is 60 bits / sec, and the abstract one - only 7 bits / second).
The development of visual-figurative thinking is promoted by:
- passage of labyrinths;
- Painting;
- reading, further analysis of the characters of the main characters;
- exercises, as a result of which each picture, with an elementary figure depicted on it, should be invented as many associations as possible;
- the use of games with the rearrangement of sticks, matches (for example, it is necessary to make two isosceles triangles of 5 matches);
- writing stories in which the main part is missed;
- exercises for the search for analogs (it is necessary to find as many identical properties as possible in one chosen object with any others).