The mental activity of people is carried out with the help of mental operations: comparison, analysis and synthesis, abstraction, generalization and concretization. All these operations are different aspects of the main activity of thinking - mediation, i.e. disclosure of more and more significant objective connections and relationships between objects, phenomena, facts (1).

Comparison- this is a comparison of objects and phenomena in order to find similarities and differences between them. K. D. Ushinsky considered the operation of comparison to be the basis of understanding. He wrote: "... comparison is the basis of all understanding and all thinking. We know everything in the world only through comparison ... If you want any object of the external environment to be understood clearly, then distinguish it from the most objects similar to it and find in it a similarity with the objects most distant from it: then only find out for yourself all the essential features of the object, and this means understanding the object "(2).

Comparing objects or phenomena, we can always notice that in some respects they are similar to each other, in others they are different. Recognition of objects as similar or different depends on what parts or properties of objects are essential for us at the moment. It often happens that the same objects are considered similar in some cases, and different in others. For example, a comparative study of domestic animals from the point of view of their usefulness to humans reveals many similar features between them, but a study of their structure and origin reveals many differences.

Comparing, a person identifies, first of all, those features that are important for solving a theoretical or practical life task.

“Comparison,” notes S. L. Rubinshtein, “comparing things, phenomena, their properties, reveals identity and differences. Revealing the identity of some and the differences of other things, comparison leads to their classification. Comparison is often the primary form of knowledge: things are first known by comparison. It is also an elementary form of knowledge. Identity and difference, the basic categories of rational knowledge, appear at first as external relations. Deeper knowledge requires the disclosure of internal connections, patterns and essential properties. This is carried out by other aspects of the thought process or types of mental operations - primarily by analysis and synthesis ”(3).

Analysis- this is a mental division of an object or phenomenon into its constituent parts or a mental selection of individual properties, features, qualities in it. Perceiving an object, we can mentally single out one part after another in it and thus find out what parts it consists of. For example, in a plant we single out a stem, root, flowers, leaves, etc. In this case, analysis is the mental decomposition of the whole into its constituent parts.

Analysis can also be a mental selection as a whole of its individual properties, features, aspects. For example, mental selection of color, shape of an object, individual behavioral features or character traits of a person, etc.

Synthesis- this is a mental connection of individual parts of objects or a mental combination of their individual properties. If analysis provides knowledge of individual elements, then synthesis, based on the results of analysis, combining these elements, provides knowledge of the object as a whole. So, when reading in the text, individual letters, words, phrases stand out and at the same time they are continuously connected with each other: letters are combined into words, words into sentences, sentences into certain sections of the text. Or let's remember the story about any event - individual episodes, their connection, dependence, etc.

Developing on the basis of practical activity and visual perception, analysis and synthesis should also be carried out as independent, purely mental operations.

Every complex thought process involves analysis and synthesis. For example, by analyzing individual actions, thoughts, feelings of literary heroes or historical figures, and as a result of synthesis, a holistic description of these heroes, these figures is mentally created.

“Analysis without synthesis is vicious; - emphasizes S. L. Rubinshtein, - attempts at one-sided application of analysis outside of synthesis lead to a mechanistic reduction of the whole to the sum of parts. In the same way, synthesis without analysis is also impossible, since synthesis must restore the whole in thought in the essential interconnections of its elements, which are distinguished by analysis ”(4).

Abstraction- this is a mental selection of essential properties and features of objects or phenomena while simultaneously abstracting from non-essential features and properties. For example, in order to assimilate the proof of a geometric theorem in a general form, one must abstract from the particular features of the drawing - it is made with chalk or pencil, what letters indicate the vertices, the absolute length of the sides, etc.

The attribute or property of an object singled out in the process of abstraction is thought independently of other attributes or properties and become independent objects of thinking. So, for all metals, we can distinguish one property - electrical conductivity. Observing how people, cars, planes, animals, rivers, etc. move, we can identify one common feature in these objects - movement. With the help of abstraction, we can get abstract concepts - courage, beauty, distance, heaviness, length, width, equality, cost, etc.

Generalization- association of similar objects and phenomena according to their common features (5). Generalization is closely related to abstraction. Man could not generalize without being distracted by the differences in what he generalizes. It is impossible to mentally unite all the trees, if you do not abstract from the differences between them.

When generalizing, those features that we obtained during abstraction are taken as a basis, for example, all metals are electrically conductive. Generalization, like abstraction, occurs with the help of words. Every word refers not to a single object or phenomenon, but to a set of similar single objects. For example, in the concept that we express by the word “fruit”, similar (essential) features are combined that are found in apples, pears, plums, etc.

In educational activities, generalization is usually manifested in definitions, conclusions, rules. It is often difficult for children to make a generalization, since they are not always able to single out not only general, but essential general features of objects, phenomena, facts.

« Abstraction And generalization, emphasizes S. L. Rubinshtein, - in their original forms rooted in practice and performed in practical actions related to needs, in their higher forms they are two interconnected sides of a single thought process of revealing connections, relationships through which thought goes to more and more deep knowledge of objective reality in its essential properties and patterns. This knowledge is accomplished in concepts, judgments and conclusions” (6, Fig. 1).

Rice. one.

Specification- this is a mental representation of something single, which corresponds to a particular concept or general position. We are no longer distracted from the various features or properties of objects and phenomena, but, on the contrary, we strive to imagine these objects or phenomena in a significant wealth of their features. Essentially, the concrete is always an indication of an example, some kind of illustration of the general. Concretization plays an essential role in the explanation we give to other people. It is especially important in the explanations given by the teacher to children. Careful consideration should be given to the choice of example. Leading by example is sometimes difficult. In general, the thought seems clear, but it is not possible to indicate a specific fact.

1. Dubrovina I. V. Psychology / I. V. Dubrovina, E. E. Danilova, A. M. Parishioners; Ed. I. V. Dubrovina. - M .: Publishing Center "Academy", 2004. S. 176.
2. Ushinsky K. D. Selected pedagogical works. In 2 vols. T. 2. - M., 1954. S. 361.
3. Rubinshtein S. L. Fundamentals of General Psychology: In 2 vols. T. I. - M .: Pedagogy, 1989. P. 377.
4. Rubinshtein S. L. Fundamentals of General Psychology: In 2 vols. T. I. - M .: Pedagogy, 1989. P. 378.
5. General psychology / Ed. V. V. Bogoslovsky and others - M .: Education, 1973. S. 228.
6. Rubinstein S. L. Fundamentals of General Psychology: In 2 vols. T. I. - M .: Pedagogy, 1989. P. 382.

Any mental activity is carried out with the help of the following mental operations: analysis and synthesis, comparison, generalization and classification, abstraction and concretization.

Analysis called the mental division of the whole into parts or the mental decomposition of objects or phenomena, the allocation of their individual parts, features, properties. As opposed to analysis synthesis there is a mental combination of parts into a single whole or a mental combination of objects and phenomena from separate parts, signs, properties. Although analysis and synthesis are opposite operations, they are at the same time inextricably linked, but at certain stages of the thought process, analysis or synthesis comes to the fore.

So, when reading, individual phrases, words, letters in the text stand out. Here the thought processes of analysis are carried out. Then the processes of synthesis become predominant: letters are combined into words, words into sentences, sentences into certain sections of the text.

When establishing, with the help of thinking, connections between objects or phenomena of the surrounding world, it is necessary compare them with each other. With the help of comparison processes, similarities and differences in objects of reality are revealed. Only by comparing some objects and phenomena with others, a person can identify their similarities and differences with each other, act in the same way on similar objects and in different ways, depending on the differences between them, correctly orient themselves in the surrounding reality.

Based on the comparison of objects and phenomena with each other, it can be produced generalization. Generalization is a mental association of objects and phenomena with each other on the basis of highlighting their common properties and features. The most important is the generalization based on the selection of essential features of similar objects. Such a generalization makes it possible to form concepts and formulate laws.

Highlighting similarities and differences in objects or phenomena by means of comparison, generalization processes allow a person to classify objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality. Classification is the mental distribution of objects into separate groups and subgroups based on the processes of comparison and generalization. You can classify animals, plants, diseases, chemical elements. When classifying on the basis of the presence of signs of similarity, small groups are combined into larger ones, and, on the contrary, differences give reason to divide broad groups into a number of fractional groups.

All diseases, for example, are divided into two large groups: neuropsychic and somatic. In turn, among neuropsychiatric diseases, mental and nervous diseases are distinguished. The group of nervous diseases includes as independent subgroups: vascular diseases, tumors, brain injuries, infectious diseases of the central nervous system, etc. On the other hand, some of these subgroups may be combined with subgroups related to somatic diseases. Thus, diseases of the vessels of the brain and heart are combined into one group of cardiovascular diseases, etc.

The classification can be based on different features. It is possible, for example, to distribute patients who are being treated in the clinic into groups according to sex or age, or according to the severity of the disease.

In the process of generalizing objects and phenomena, a person thinks only about their common properties, abstracting from the differences between them. This mental operation is called abstraction. An example of abstraction, in particular, are thoughts about the height of a building, regardless of all its other features, etc. That is, with abstraction, the properties of objects are thought abstractly from the objects themselves with all their features.

Abstraction and generalization are closely related. On the one hand, the process of generalization is based on abstraction, abstraction from the differences between generalized objects. On the other hand, the generalization itself, the allocation of the general in objects and phenomena, contributes to the abstraction of these properties. Generalization of similar objects, such as mountains, helps to abstract the sign of the height of mountains, being distracted from other signs that are common to mountains.

As opposed to abstraction specification allows you to move from more general, abstract properties and signs to concrete reality, to sensory experience. Talking about the common features of all trees, we can then specify these provisions by giving an example of a particular type of trees. Concretization, thus, contributes to a better understanding of the general, linking it with direct sensory experience. Thanks to concretization, thinking is constantly based on reality; concretization prevents the separation of thinking from this reality.

Abstraction operations play an important role in the process of understanding the conventional meaning, sayings and proverbs. In order to understand this meaning, it is necessary to abstract from the specific situation that they describe. So, when explaining the conditional, figurative meaning of “strike while the iron is hot,” we must abstract ourselves from ideas about iron and how it is processed, capturing only the general meaning of a proverb of this kind, which consists in the fact that one should not put off a task, the execution of which is possible only now : time can be lost (as when iron is cooled), and the job will be lost because of this.

With mental disorders, the abstraction operations necessary to understand the figurative meaning of sayings and proverbs may be violated. Patients with such mental disorders find it difficult when trying to explain the meaning of proverbs and sayings: “not all that glitters is gold”, “don’t get into your sleigh”, etc. They often explain the last proverb like this: “not your sleigh - not sit down, sit down only in your sleigh. They also cannot carry out the operation of comparing proverbs and say which of the three proverbs (“go slower, you will be further”, “measure seven times, cut once”, “strike while the iron is hot”) are similar, and which of these proverbs differ in figurative meaning. Violations of abstraction operations are also manifested in the inability to understand a joke, humor, to catch their abstract meaning.

Opposite disorders are also observed, in which violations of concretization operations come to the fore. These frustrations are shown sometimes in the form of reasoning. Reasoning differs in that, having chosen a certain topic for conversation, a person begins to express, often in an instructive tone, various provisions that are abstract, little connected with concrete reality. Each of these provisions may be correct, but there is no specification of these provisions, and therefore the patient's statements acquire the character of "idle talk on a given topic."

2. Basic mental operations

The process of solving problems is undoubtedly a model that most fully reflects the structure of intellectual activity, and the study of the features of this process can provide essential materials for understanding the psychology of human thinking. In the process of mental activity, a person learns the world around him with the help of special mental operations. “These operations constitute various interrelated aspects of thinking that pass into each other. The main mental operations are analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, concretization and generalization.

Analysis is the mental decomposition of the whole into parts or the mental separation of its aspects, actions, relations from the whole. In its elementary form, analysis is expressed in the practical decomposition of objects into their component parts. A table, for example, can be divided into parts such as a lid, legs, drawers, spacers, etc. When introducing children to a plant, they are offered to show part of it (trunk, branches, leaves, roots). Analysis can be practical (when the thought process is directly included in speech activity) and mental (theoretical). If analysis is divorced from other operations, they become vicious, mechanistic. Elements of such an analysis are observed in a child at the first stages of the development of thinking, when the child takes apart, breaks toys into separate parts, without using them further.

Synthesis is a mental union of parts, properties, actions into a single whole. The operation of synthesis is the opposite of analysis. In its process, the relation of individual objects or phenomena as elements or parts to their complex whole, object or phenomenon is established. Synthesis is not a mechanical connection of parts and therefore is not reduced to their sum. When connecting the individual parts of the machine, when they are synthesized, not a pile of metal is obtained, but a machine capable of moving. The chemical combination of oxygen and hydrogen produces water. Both synthesis and analysis occupy an important place in the intellectual process. So, when learning to read sounds and letters, they make up a syllable, from syllables - words, from words - sentences.

Analysis and synthesis always proceed in unity. Analyzing what includes something common, whole. Synthesis also involves analysis: in order to combine some parts, elements into a single whole, these parts and features must be obtained, and the result of the analysis. In mental activity, analysis and synthesis, as it were, alternately come to the fore. The predominance of analysis or synthesis in thinking can be due both to the nature of the material and the conditions of the task, and to the mental makeup of a person.

Comparison is the establishment of similarities or differences between objects and phenomena or their individual features. In practice, comparison is observed when one object is applied to another; for example, one pencil to another, a ruler to a desk, etc. This is how the process of comparison takes place when we measure space or weigh weights. Comparison can be unilateral (incomplete, according to one attribute) and multilateral (complete, according to all attributes); superficial and deep; unmediated and mediated. The main requirement for the comparison operation is that it be carried out in one relation. For a deeper and more accurate knowledge of activity, such a quality of thinking as the ability to find differences in the most similar objects and similarities in different ones is of particular importance.

Abstraction consists in the fact that the subject, isolating any properties, signs of the object under study, is distracted from the rest. So we can talk about the green color as a beneficial effect on human vision, without specifically specifying objects that have a green color. In this process, the attribute separated from the object is thought independently of other attributes of the object, becomes an independent object of thought. Abstraction is usually carried out as a result of analysis. It was through abstraction that abstract, abstract concepts of length, breadth, quantity, equality, value, etc. were created. Abstraction is a complex process that depends on the originality of the object under study and the goals facing the researcher. Thanks to abstraction, a person can be distracted from the individual, the concrete. At the same time, abstraction does not exist without sensual support, otherwise it becomes meaningless, formal. Among the types of abstraction, one can distinguish practical, directly included in the process of activity; sensual or external; higher, mediated, expressed in concepts.

Concretization involves the return of thought from the general and abstract to the concrete in order to reveal the content. Concretization is addressed in the event that the expressed thought turns out to be incomprehensible to others or it is necessary to show the manifestation of the general in the individual. When we are asked to give an example, the request is essentially to specify what has been said before.

Generalization - a mental union of objects and phenomena according to their common and essential features. For example, similar features found in apples, pears, plums, etc., are combined in one concept, which we express with the word "fruit". Thinking activity is always aimed at obtaining a result. A person analyzes objects in order to identify common patterns in them and predict their properties. A psychologist studies people in order to reveal the general patterns of their development. The repeatability of a certain set of properties in a number of objects indicates more or less significant connections between them. At the same time, generalization does not at all imply the rejection of specific special properties of objects, but consists in revealing their essential connections. Essential, i.e. necessarily interconnected and, precisely because of this, inevitably repetitive.

The simplest generalizations consist in combining objects on the basis of separate, random features. More complex is complex generalization, in which objects are combined for different reasons. The most difficult is the generalization, in which specific and generic features are clearly distinguished and the object is included in the system of concepts.

All of these operations cannot occur in isolation without connection with each other. On their basis, more complex operations arise, such as classification, systematization, and others. Each of the mental operations can be considered as a corresponding mental action. At the same time, the activity, the effective nature of human thinking, the possibility of creative transformation of reality are emphasized. Human thinking not only includes various operations, but also proceeds at various levels, in various forms, which together allows us to speak about the existence of different types of thinking. In psychology, there are several approaches to the problem of classifying the types of thinking. As already shown above, in terms of the degree of development, thinking can be a discursive, stage-by-stage developed process, and intuitive, characterized by the speed of flow, the absence of clearly defined stages, and minimal awareness.

Raising a culture of mental work. The main requirements for the methodology for conducting such classes are as follows: 1) conducting classes to educate the culture of mental work should be carried out not on a case-by-case basis, but according to a pre-designed program and calendar schedule; 2) successive relationship with the work of subject teachers to develop the intellectual abilities of students; ...

In a didactic game, they imitate the captain's mental work - they "lead the ship along a given course" based on the calculations made. A didactic game is a valuable means of educating the mental activity of children, it activates mental processes, arouses in students a keen interest in the process of cognition. In it, children willingly overcome significant difficulties, train their strength, develop ...

In society, which entails the invention and development of fundamentally new technologies for the search, dissemination, translation of knowledge in the social space. 2.2 General characteristics of the formation of the intellectual culture of the individual The needs of the socio-economic development of Russia must be provided by the education system, since education and intelligence, as well as spiritual health ...

Knowledge, with the mastery of educational and cognitive operations, with the manifestation of the flexibility of the mind both in the assimilation of knowledge and in their practical use. We are talking about human thinking as an integral part of mental education. Thinking is a product of the activity of the human brain. It is common to all people. Teachers and psychologists recommend that the teacher develop thinking in general and its particular types. ...

In psychology, the following operations of thinking are distinguished: analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, classification (systematization), abstraction, concretization (Fig. 2). With the help of these operations of thinking, penetration is carried out deep into one or another problem facing a person, the properties of the elements that make up this problem are considered, and a solution to the problem is found.

Rice. 2. Mental operations

Analysis is a mental operation of dividing a complex object into its constituent parts. Analysis is the selection in an object of one or another of its aspects, elements, relationships, relationships, etc. Along with highlighting the essential parts of an object, analysis allows you to mentally highlight individual properties of the object, such as color, shape of the object, speed of the process, etc. Attention should also be paid to the fact that analysis is possible not only when a person perceives an object, but also when he perceives it from memory. With the help of analysis, the most significant features are revealed.

Synthesis is a mental operation that allows one to move from parts to the whole in a single analytical-synthetic process of thinking.

Synthesis can be carried out both on the basis of perception and on the basis of memories and ideas. Being inherently opposite operations, analysis and synthesis are in fact closely related.

Comparison- a mental operation that reveals the identity and difference of phenomena and their properties, allowing the classification of phenomena and their generalization.

Recognition of the similarity or difference between objects depends on what properties of the compared objects are essential for a person. The comparison operation can be performed in two ways: directly And indirectly. When a person can compare two objects or phenomena, perceiving them simultaneously, he uses direct comparison. In cases where a person makes a comparison by inference, he uses an indirect comparison.

Generalization- a mental operation that allows you to mentally combine objects and phenomena according to their common and essential features. Generalization can be carried out at two levels. The first, elementary level is the combination of similar objects according to external features (generalization). But of great cognitive value is the generalization of the second, higher level, when significant common features are distinguished in a group of objects and phenomena.

abstraction- a mental operation of reflecting individual properties of phenomena that are significant in some respect.

The essence of abstraction as a mental operation is that, perceiving an object and highlighting a certain part in it, a person considers the selected part or property, regardless of other parts or properties of this object. Thus, with the help of abstraction, a person can single out a part of an object or property from the entire flow of perceived information, i.e. be distracted or abstracted from other signs of the information he receives.

Abstraction is widely used by a person in the formation and assimilation of new concepts, since the concepts reflect only the essential features common to a whole class of objects.

Specification- a mental operation of cognition of a holistic object in the totality of its essential relationships, a theoretical reconstruction of a holistic object. Concretization is the opposite process of abstraction. In concrete representations, a person does not seek to abstract himself from various features or properties of objects and phenomena, but, on the contrary, seeks to imagine these objects in all the variety of properties and features, in close combination of some features with others.

Classification- grouping of objects according to essential features. Unlike classification, which should be based on features that are significant in some respect, systematization sometimes it allows the choice as a basis of signs of little importance (for example, in alphabetical catalogs), but operationally convenient.

mental activity of a person is a solution to various mental problems aimed at revealing the essence of something. Thinking operation- this is one of the ways of mental activity, through which a person solves mental problems.

mental operations diverse: analysis and synthesis, comparison, abstraction, concretization, generalization, classification. Which of the logical operations a person will use will depend on the task and on the nature of the information that he subjects to mental processing.

Analysis- this is a mental decomposition of the whole into parts or a mental separation from the whole of its sides, actions, relations. Synthesis- the reverse process of thought to analysis, it is the unification of parts, properties, actions, relations into one whole. Analysis and synthesis are two interrelated logical operations. Synthesis, like analysis, can be both practical and mental. Analysis and synthesis were formed in the practical activity of man. In labor activity, people constantly interact with objects and phenomena. Practical development of them led to the formation of mental operations of analysis and synthesis.

Comparison- this is the establishment of similarities and differences between objects and phenomena. The comparison is based on analysis. Before comparing objects, it is necessary to select one or more of their features, according to which the comparison will be made. The comparison can be one-sided, or incomplete, and multi-sided, or more complete. Comparison, like analysis and synthesis, can be of different levels - superficial and deeper. In this case, a person's thought goes from external signs of similarity and difference to internal ones, from the visible to the hidden, from the phenomenon to the essence.

abstraction- this is a process of mental abstraction from some signs, aspects of the concrete in order to better know it. A person mentally highlights some feature of an object and considers it in isolation from all other features, temporarily distracted from them. An isolated study of individual features of an object, while simultaneously abstracting from all the others, helps a person to better understand the essence of things and phenomena. Thanks to abstraction, a person was able to break away from the individual, concrete and rise to the highest level of knowledge - scientific theoretical thinking.

Specification- a process that is inverse to abstraction and is inextricably linked with it. Concretization is the return of thought from the general and abstract to the concrete in order to reveal the content.

Thinking activity is always aimed at obtaining some result. A person analyzes objects, compares them, abstracts individual properties in order to reveal what is common in them, in order to reveal the patterns that govern their development, in order to master them.

Generalization, thus, there is a selection in objects and phenomena of the general, which is expressed in the form of a concept, law, rule, formula, etc.

Stages of formation of mental actions (according to P.Ya. Galperin).

According to Galperin, any new mental action, for example, imagination, understanding, thinking comes after the corresponding external activity.

This process goes through several stages, causing the transition from external activity to psychological. Effective training must take these steps into account. According to Galperin, training can be conditionally called any activity, since the one who performs it receives new information and skills, and at the same time the information he receives receives a new quality.

The theory of gradual formation of mental actions P.Ya. Galperina is well known in domestic psychology and has received wide international recognition.

The process of formation of mental actions according to P.Ya. Galperin is done in stages:

1. Identification of the orienting basis of action. At this stage, orientation in the task occurs, initially what is striking itself is highlighted.

2. The formation of an action in a material form takes place. At this stage, the student of mental actions receives a complete system of indications and a system of external signs that he needs to focus on. The action is automated, made expedient, it is possible to transfer it to similar tasks.

3. The stage of external speech. Here the action is further generalized due to its complete verbalization in oral or written speech. Thus, the action is assimilated in a form divorced from specifics, i.e. generalized. It is important not only to know the conditions, but also to understand them.

4. The stage of formation of actions in external speech to oneself. Stage of internal activity. As in the previous stage, the action is manifested in a generalized form, but its verbal assimilation occurs without the participation of external speech. After receiving a mental form, the action begins to quickly reduce, acquiring a form identical to the model, and undergoing automation.

5. Formation of actions in inner speech. The stage of internalization of action. The action here becomes an internal process, maximally automated, it becomes an act of thought, the course of which is closed, and only the final "product" of this process is known.

The transition from the first of these stages to all subsequent ones is a consistent internalization of actions. This is a transition from outside to inside.

All activity is not an end in itself, but is caused by a certain motive of this activity, of which it is a part. When the purpose of the task coincides with the motive, the action becomes an activity.

Those. activity is the process of solving problems, caused by the desire to achieve the goal, which can be achieved through this process.

Galperin appreciates the role of motivation so highly that, along with 5 main stages in the process of mastering new actions, in his latest works he recommends taking into account one more stage - the formation of appropriate motivation in students.

The psychological law of the assimilation of knowledge is that they are formed in the mind not before, but in the process of applying them to practice.

A person best of all remembers the knowledge that he used in some of his own actions, applied to the solution of some real problems. Knowledge that has not found practical application is usually gradually forgotten.

The assimilation of knowledge is not the goal of learning, but a means. Knowledge is acquired in order to learn how to do something with its help, and not to be stored in memory.

Any well-mastered action (motor, perceptual, verbal) is an action fully represented in the mind. A person who knows how to act correctly is able to mentally perform this action from beginning to end.

Theories of the development of thinking.

In the formation of the development of thinking, several stages can be conventionally distinguished. The boundaries and content of these stages may vary by different authors. This is due to the position of the author on this issue. Currently, there are several of the most well-known classifications of stages in the development of human thinking.

Visual-active thinking.

Depending on the content of the problem being solved, visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking (consecutive stages of intellectual development) are distinguished. Genetically, the earliest form of thinking is visual-effective thinking, the first manifestations of which in a child can be observed at the end of the first - beginning of the second year of life, even before mastering active speech. Features of visual-effective thinking are manifested in the fact that problems are solved with the help of a real, physical transformation of the situation, testing the properties of objects. The initial stage in the development of human thinking is associated with generalizations. At the same time, the child's first generalizations are inseparable from practical activity, which finds expression in the same actions that he performs with objects similar to each other. Primitive sensory abstraction, in which the child singles out some aspects and is distracted from others, leads to the first elementary generalization. As a result, the first, unstable groupings of objects into classes and bizarre classifications are created. An important basis for the mental activity of the child is observation. Cogitative activity is expressed, first of all, in comparison and comparison. At the same time, the differences between such concepts as a thing and the properties of a thing are assimilated. The child learns to make inferences. A visual-effective type of thinking is also found in adults, it is found in everyday life (used when rearranging furniture) and when it is impossible to fully foresee the results of any actions in advance (the work of a tester, designer).

Visual-figurative thinking.

Visual-figurative thinking is connected with the operation of images. This type of thinking is clearly manifested in preschoolers aged 4-6 years. The connection between thinking and practical actions, although they retain, is not as close, direct and immediate as before. In the course of the analysis and synthesis of a cognizable object, the child does not necessarily and by no means always have to touch the object that interests him with his hands. In many cases, no practical manipulation of the object is required, but in all cases it is necessary to clearly perceive and visualize this object. In other words, preschoolers think only in visual images and do not yet master concepts (in the strict sense), although they use words widely (but words still play the role of denoting objects, and not as a reflection of the essential properties of objects). The visual-figurative thinking of children is still directly and completely subordinated to their perception. Adults also use visual-figurative thinking, it allows you to give the form of an image to such things and their relationships that are not visible by themselves (the image of an atomic nucleus, the internal structure of the globe).

Verbal-logical thinking.

Verbal-logical thinking is a type of thinking carried out with the help of logical operations with concepts. Verbal-logical thinking functions on the basis of linguistic means and represents the latest stage in the historical and ontogenetic development of thinking. This type of thinking is characterized by the use of concepts, logical constructions, which sometimes do not have a direct figurative expression (cost, honesty, pride). Thanks to verbal-logical thinking, a person can establish the most general patterns, foresee the development of processes in nature and society, and generalize various visual material. At the same time, even the most abstract thinking never completely breaks away from visual-sensory experience. Any abstract concept has for each person its own specific sensual support, which cannot reflect the entire depth of the concept, but allows you not to break away from the real world.

Pre-conceptual and conceptual thinking.

In its formation, thinking goes through two stages: pre-conceptual and conceptual. Pre-conceptual thinking is the initial stage in the development of thinking in a child, when his thinking has a different organization than that of adults; children's judgments are single, about this particular subject. When explaining something, everything is reduced by them to the particular, the familiar. Most judgments are judgments by similarity, since memory plays the main role in thinking during this period. The central feature of pre-conceptual thinking is egocentrism. A child under 5 years old cannot look at himself from the outside, cannot correctly understand situations that require some detachment from his own point of view and acceptance of someone else's position. Egocentrism causes such features of children's logic as insensitivity to contradictions, syncretism (the tendency to connect everything with everything), transduction (the transition from the particular to the particular, bypassing the general), and the lack of an idea of ​​the conservation of quantity. During normal development, there is a regular replacement of pre-conceptual thinking, where concrete images serve as components, by conceptual (abstract) thinking, where concepts serve as components and formal operations are applied.

Conceptual thinking does not come all at once, but through a series of intermediate stages. Thinking develops from concrete images to perfect concepts, denoted by the word. The concept initially reflects similar, unchanged in phenomena and objects. Significant changes in the intellectual development of the child occur at school age. These shifts are expressed in the knowledge of ever deeper properties of objects, in the formation of the mental operations necessary for this. These mental operations are not yet sufficiently generalized; the thinking of children of primary school age is conceptually concrete. However, they already master some more complex forms of reasoning, realize the power of logical necessity, they develop verbal-logical thinking. In the middle and senior school ages, more complex cognitive tasks become available to students, mental operations are generalized, formalized, the range of their transfer and application in various new situations expands. A transition is being made from conceptual-concrete to abstract-conceptual thinking. The intellectual development of a child is characterized by a regular change of stages, where each previous stage prepares the subsequent ones.