Intelligence and thinking difference. Psychology textbook thinking and intelligence. Thinking and intelligence

The relationship between the concepts of "thinking" and "intelligence". Thinking as a kind of knowledge. Intelligence and adaptation.

Types of thinking. Visual-active thinking. Symbolic intelligence.

Thinking and logic. Structural analysis in the psychology of intelligence. Theory of stages J. Piaget. The development of ideas about space and time in children.

Thinking Process. Stages of the thought process. The process of solving problems according to G. Simon.

Thinking and creativity. Differences between types of creativity. The role of the unconscious in the processes of creativity. Productive and reproductive thinking. The theory of creative thinking Ya.A. Ponomareva.

Individual features of intelligence. Intelligence tests. Factor analysis in the field of intellectual tests. Creativity.

Age, gender and social characteristics of intelligence. Correlation between indicators of intelligence in a person at different ages. The influence of the family on the intellectual development of children. Racial and gender differences in intelligence.

Correlation between the concepts of "thinking" and "intelligence"

Thinking and intelligence are terms that are close in content. Their relationship becomes even clearer if we switch to everyday speech. In this case, the word "mind" will correspond to the intellect. We say "smart person", denoting by this the individual characteristics of intelligence. We can also say that "the mind of a child develops with age", - this conveys the problem of the development of the intellect. The term "thinking" we can put in correspondence with the word "thinking". The word "mind" expresses a property, ability, and "thinking" - a process. Thus, both terms express different aspects of the same phenomenon. A person endowed with intellect is capable of carrying out thought processes. Intelligence is the ability to think, and thinking is the process of realizing the intellect.

· Intelligence is the ability to think.

Thinking is a mediated and generalized knowledge of objective reality.

Thinking and intelligence have long been considered the most important distinguishing features of a person. No wonder the term is used to define the type of modern man. Homo sapiens- a reasonable person. A person who has lost sight, hearing or the ability to move, of course, bears a heavy loss, but does not cease to be a person. After all, deafened Beethoven or blinded Homer have not ceased to be great for us. The one who has completely lost his mind seems to us to be struck in his very human essence.

First of all, thinking is considered as a kind of knowledge. From a psychological point of view, cognition acts as the creation of representations of the external world, its models, or images. In order to get to work, we need some spatial model of the road between home and work. To understand what we are told in a lecture about the wars of Alexander the Great, we need to create some internal model depicting the victories of the great commander. However, thinking is not all knowledge. Cognition is, for example, perception. A sailor who sees a sailboat on the horizon from the mast of a ship also creates a certain mental model, a representation of what he saw. However, this representation is not the result of thinking, but of perception. That's why thinking is defined as mediated and generalized knowledge of objective reality.

For example, looking out into the street, a person sees that the roof of a neighboring house is wet. This is an act of perception. If a person, by the appearance of a wet roof, concludes that it has rained, then we are dealing with an act of thinking, albeit a very simple one. Thinking is mediated in the sense that it goes beyond the immediate given. Based on one fact, we draw a conclusion about another. In the case of thinking, we are not simply dealing with the creation of a mental model based on the observation of the external world. The process of thinking is much more complicated: first, a model of external conditions is created, and then the next model is derived from it. So, in our example, a person first creates the first model related to the sphere of perception - the image of a wet roof, and then derives from it the second model, according to which it has recently rained.

Thinking as knowledge that goes beyond the immediate given is a powerful means of biological adaptation. An animal that can tell indirectly where its prey is or where there is more food, whether a predator or a stronger relative is going to attack it, has a much better chance of surviving than an animal that does not have this ability. It is thanks to the intellect that man has taken a dominant position on Earth and received additional means for biological survival. However, at the same time, the human intellect also created colossal destructive forces.

From an individual point of view, there is basically a threshold relationship between intelligence and performance success. For most types of human activity, there is a certain minimum of intelligence that ensures the ability to successfully engage in this activity. For some activities (for example, mathematics), this minimum is very high, for others (for example, the work of a courier) it is much lower.

However, “woe from wit” is also possible. Excessive intelligence can negatively affect a person's relationships with other people. Thus, the data of a number of American researchers show that very high intelligence can harm politicians. For them, there is a certain optimum of intelligence, a deviation from which, both upward and downward, leads to a decrease in success. If the intelligence of a politician is below the optimum, then the ability to understand the situation, predict the development of events, etc. is reduced. If the optimum is significantly exceeded, the politician becomes incomprehensible to the group that he should lead. The higher the intellectual level of the group, the higher the optimum intelligence for the leader of this group.

A very high level of intelligence (exceeding 155 points on IQ tests) also negatively affects the adaptation of children with it. They are ahead of their peers in mental development by more than 4 years and become strangers in their teams.

Types of thinking

Thinking is often associated with a bearded sage, reflecting on the structure of the universe. Of course, theoretical, scientific or philosophical thinking is a highly developed form of this process. However, in animals and in children we observe forms of activity that fully fit the definition of thinking given above. Let's take the following example from W. Köhler's classic experiment on chimpanzees.

“Six young animals ... are locked in a room with smooth walls, the ceiling of which (about 2 m high) they cannot reach; a wooden box (50 x 40 x 30 cm) stands flat almost in the middle of the room, and its open side is directed upwards; the target is nailed to the roof in the corner (2.5 m from the box, if measured by the floor). All animals unsuccessfully try to get the target by jumping from the floor; The Sultan, however, soon leaves this, walks restlessly around the room, suddenly stops in front of the box, grabs it, flips it edge to edge straight towards the target, climbs on it when it is still about 0.5 m away (horizontally), and , immediately jumping with all his might, breaks the target ”(Kehler, 1981, pp. 241-242).

In this example, we see a highly organized chimpanzee behavior that can be called intelligent. The chimpanzee uses a tool here, which requires establishing unobservable relations of objects, that is, by the definition given above, to perform an act of thinking. But thinking takes place here not in terms of speech, but in terms of real actions with external objects. To refer to this phenomenon, Koehler used the phrase "manual intelligence". In domestic psychology, the term "visual-effective thinking" has taken root. Almost synonymous with the first two and the expression used by J. Piaget - "sensory-motor intelligence."

We will briefly consider only one system of concepts used to describe sensorimotor intelligence. This system of concepts was proposed by J. Piaget, and the concept of “scheme” is central in it. This concept is introduced as the opposite of a reflex as a rigidly established connection between a stimulus and a reaction (hit under the knee - the leg flinched). A scheme is an invariant of the organization of a family of related actions. For example, the grasping action directed by the schema is not rigidly defined, it depends on what object it is directed to: when grasping a rattle, the movements of the child's fingers are not the same as when grasping, say, a blanket.

In Piaget's terms, the scheme of action assimilates various objects. The assimilation of new, unknown objects presupposes a change in the scheme, its accommodation. These not too complex concepts are extremely useful in describing the developmental path that sensorimotor intelligence goes through.

Initially, the description of sensorimotor intelligence was developed by Piaget on the material of the development of his own children in infancy (Fig. 13-1). However, this way of describing is also applicable to the intelligence of animals. In particular, A. Re carried out research on the development of chickens in this way. The main result of A. Re was that chickens go through approximately the same stages of development as human babies, and at first more quickly, only this development stops much earlier.

According to Piaget, there are six main stages in the development of sensorimotor intelligence.

The first stage, which occupies approximately the first month of a child's life, is characterized by the predominance of innate, rigidly set reflexes.

At the second stage (from one to four months), the child acquires the first simple skills as a result of interaction with the world around him. There is an accommodation of schemes of action to new objects. Mutual assimilation of one object by different schemes also appears. For example, the mutual assimilation between the grasping and sucking patterns consists in the fact that the child puts everything that he has grasped into his mouth and grabs what has got into his mouth. At the same stage, but somewhat later, there is a mutual assimilation between the schemas of grasping and seeing. At first, the child delays objects that are carried to the mouth if they fall into his field of vision. He then becomes able to grasp the object he sees. This happens, however, only if both the object and the hand fall into his field of vision. Finally, towards the end of this stage of development, he tries to look at what he has grasped, and, to the chagrin of his mother, strives to grasp everything he sees.

At the third stage (approximately 4-8 months), the child begins to more actively explore the objects of the outside world. Faced with an unfamiliar object, he explores it using familiar patterns: shakes, hits, scratches, swings. There is also a "motor recognition" of objects. Noticing a familiar object, the child makes, as it were, a sketch of the movements that he previously applied to it.

At the third stage, the child is not yet able to use one action as a means of accomplishing another. This ability arises at the fourth stage, towards the end of the first year of life. The child, for example, begins to remove the hand that prevents him from taking the object. At the same stage, anticipation of events occurs. So, one of Piaget's children cries, anticipating separation, when the father gets up from his chair.

For the fifth stage (approximately 12-18 months), the most characteristic cognitive neoplasm is the "discovery of new means to achieve the goal through active experimentation." This means that in order to achieve some goal, the child is actively experimenting in order to discover a suitable means.

At the sixth stage (18-24 months), the child becomes capable of "insight", that is, a sudden, internal, without external experimentation, the discovery of new means to achieve the goal. For example, a child who has not seen sticks for up to a year and a half can immediately understand how to use them as tools. Piaget says that schemes at this stage acquire the ability to be combined before rather than after their eventual application.

The further development of the intellect lies in its transition to the symbolic plane associated with the operation of symbols, primarily words. Until recently, it was believed that only man possesses symbolic intelligence. Attempts to teach higher animals to human speech have not been successful. However, in the 1980s American spouses Gardner managed to teach chimpanzees the language of the deaf and dumb. It turned out that the difficulties of previous attempts were associated not so much with the intellectual capabilities of animals, but with the limitations of their articulatory apparatus or phonemic hearing. In the language of the deaf-mutes, the monkeys turned out to be capable of quite complex statements: they not only used one-word sentences, but also constructed phrases from several words. Some monkeys even used words in a figurative sense, such as the word "dirty" for a person who does not fulfill their desire. However, in terms of the level of speech development of a chimpanzee, even with special training, it does not exceed a 3-5-year-old human child.

Symbolic intelligence has become the basis for the development of human culture. Thanks to him, practical action has also reached great perfection. With the help of symbolic intelligence, the preparatory stage of complex human actions is carried out: projects of buildings, engineering structures, rockets and aircraft are being prepared, the laws of nature are being studied, on the basis of which technology is created.

Symbolic intelligence has been studied in psychology more than sensorimotor intelligence.

Thinking and logic

Thinking is investigated not only by psychology. It is also dealt with by logic and the theory of knowledge. What is the difference between the subjects of these sciences?

S. L. Rubinshtein (1981, p. 72) writes: “In the theory of knowledge, we are talking about the analysis, generalization, etc. of the products of scientific thinking that take shape in the course of the historical development of scientific knowledge; in psychology, we are talking about analyzing, synthesizing, etc., as activities of a thinking individual.” So, psychology deals with the process of thinking, and logic and the theory of knowledge - its product. However, it is necessary to clarify what we mean by product here.

Suppose we are proving a theorem that the point of intersection of the medians of a triangle divides them in a ratio of 2 to 1. Under the product of thinking, we must understand not only the end result, but the entire chain of inference from given conditions to the proven conclusion. The process studied by psychology consists in isolating the necessary properties of geometric objects, creating a mental model, etc. The process of thinking may or may not lead to the appearance of a logically correct product. In practice, for psychological study, mistakes often turn out to be more interesting than correct thinking, since they more clearly indicate the features of the functioning of the mechanism of thinking.

Let's take a simple example. The experimenter shows the subject two sticks - A and B. The subject states that A is longer than B. Then the experimenter hides stick A and takes out stick C instead. After the subject is convinced that B is longer than C, the experimenter asks which the stick is longer, A or C. If the subject is a normal adult or a developed child over 7-8 years old, he will immediately realize that A is longer. In this example, at the initial stage of thinking, the subject had an idea of ​​the situation, including two relations: A > B and B > C. Then the adult subject was able to transform his idea in such a way that he deduced the unobservable property A > C.

With younger children, the picture is different. A very small child will not be able to understand at all which stick is larger. Older children correctly compare sticks, but cannot answer the final question. For example, a child under 6-7 years old may say that he did not see sticks A and C together, therefore he does not know. The smallest child, therefore, is not even able to perceive the relation A > B. An older child can perceive this relation, but is not able to think it, that is, to make it an element for deriving an unobservable property. The ability to think (infer unobservable properties) arises when relationships are built into a system like A>B>C>D, etc. More-less relationships, therefore, psychologically make sense only in the context of a coordinated system of all relationships.

It is logical to assume that the complexity of the transformation of the mental model depends on the structure of the task, that is, the nature of the system of relations connecting the elements of the task. For different structures, the complexity of deriving inferences turns out to be different. From this follows the essence of structural analysis in the psychology of intelligence.

The credit for introducing structural analysis into the psychology of the intellect belongs to J. Piaget. He applied structural analysis to the development of children's intelligence. Piaget systematically investigated how the child consistently becomes able to think of various structures, and collected colossal empirical material on the characteristics of the child's intellect.

Let's take an example from the early work of J. Piaget, where the phenomena of so-called animism and artificialism are recorded in children up to 7-8 years old.

Animism is the attribution of animation to inanimate objects. For example, a child may think that clouds move to accompany us on a walk or to make it rain. In the explanation, the place of physical causality is occupied by the relation of intention or desire.

Artificalism- this is the belief in the emergence of objects and phenomena by artificial means. For example, many children interviewed by Piaget believed that rivers were dug by people, and mountains arose from the resulting earth (it should be remembered that Piaget conducted his experiments in mountainous Switzerland).

Structural analysis reveals the cause of animism and artificialism - the lack of a well-formed understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. Children up to 7-8 years of age confuse the relationship of natural causation with the relationship of intention and its implementation.

It is important to emphasize that any structure can have many specific implementations in content. For example, Swiss children in the late 1920s. expressed to Piaget the opinion that the moon was made by "God". Moscow children in the 1970s L. F. Obukhova and G. V. Burmenskaya, who repeated Piaget’s experiments, said that the moon was established by astronauts. One and the same artificialistic type of explanation thus acquires completely different interpretations.

Piaget systematized a huge amount of material on the development of the child's intellect using the theory of stages. As mentioned above, from birth to 2 years, according to Piaget, the child develops sensorimotor intelligence. From the age of two, the child is already capable of symbolic thinking. This period is called by Piaget the stage of pre-operational intelligence. At this stage, there are many phenomena discovered by Piaget, which will be discussed a little later. From 7-8 to 11-12 years old these phenomena disappear. This stage is called the concrete operations stage. But only at the stage of formal operations from 11-12 to 15 years old, culminating in the final development of the intellect, does the teenager acquire the ability to carry out deductive reasoning and some other complex functions of thinking.

· Artificalism is an explanation of the emergence of objects and phenomena by artificial means.

The discovery of structural analysis and the development of methods for collecting empirical material are Piaget's enduring merit. At the same time, the theory of stages and the theory of grouping operations are currently subjected to strong criticism.

The spheres of thought that operate with continuous quantities include the concepts of space and time studied by Piaget. Piaget identified three types of spatial relations: topological, projective, and Euclidean.

Topological relations relate to adjacent elements, are mastered by the child earlier than others and are based on the grouping of operations for assembling and disassembling objects. Projective and Euclidean relations, on the other hand, link elements at a distance and arrange them in an ordered space; in the case of projective relations, the ordering factor is the coordination of points of view, the projective line, in the case of Euclidean relations, the coordinate system. Piaget believed that projective relations are based on the grouping of operations associated with masking the invisible parts of an object when changing the point of view on it. In the case of Euclidean relations, the operations of moving objects are grouped.

The stages of development of a child's drawing, according to Piaget, show an earlier emergence of topological operations compared to projective and Euclidean ones. Initially, at the stage of inability to synthesize, the child violates all types of spatial relationships. For this age, for example, the drawing of a “cephalopod” is typical, that is, a little man whose arms and legs grow from the head.

Intelligence- a set of human mental abilities that ensure the success of his cognitive activity.

In a broad sense, this term is understood as the totality of all cognitive functions of an individual (perception, memory, imagination, thinking), and in a narrow sense - his mental abilities.

In psychology, there is a concept intelligence structures However, the understanding of this structure varies widely depending on the views of a particular psychologist. For example, the famous scientist R. Cattell singled out two sides in the structure of intelligence: dynamic - "fluid" (fluid), and static - "crystallized" (crystallized). According to his concept, "fluid intelligence" manifests itself in tasks, the solution of which requires quick and flexible adaptation to a new situation. It depends more on the genotype of the person. "Crystallized intelligence" is more dependent on the social environment and manifests itself in solving problems that require appropriate skills and experience.

You can use other models of the structure of intelligence, for example, highlighting the following components in it:

• ability to learn (rapid mastering of new knowledge, skills and abilities);
• the ability to successfully operate with abstract symbols and concepts;
• ability to solve practical problems and problem situations;
• the amount of available long-term and operative memory.

Accordingly, intelligence tests include several groups of tasks. These are tests that reveal the amount of knowledge in a particular area; tests that evaluate the intellectual development of a person in connection with his biological age; tests that determine a person's ability to solve problem situations and intellectual tasks. In addition, there are special tests. For example, on abstract-logical or spatial thinking, on verbal intelligence, etc.

The most famous tests of this type include:

• Stanford-Binet test- evaluates the intellectual development of the child;
• Wexler test - assesses the verbal and non-verbal components of intelligence;
• Raven test - non-verbal intelligence;
• Eysenck test (IQ) - determines the general level of intelligence development.

In the study of intelligence in psychology, there are two approaches: intellectual abilities are innate or develop in the process of individual development, as well as their intermediate version.

DEVELOPMENT OF THINKING

Development of thinking in the process of ontogenesis

Thinking is not formed in a person immediately. It is absent in a newborn, its activity is determined exclusively by unconditioned reflexes - unambiguous responses to certain stimuli. An infant at the age of several months also does not have thinking, but conditioned reflexes are already forming in it. This means that his brain can flexibly connect two stimuli with each other and respond adequately to them - for example, a baby smiles at his mother and cries at the sight of a stranger. Only towards the end of the first year of life do the first elements of thinking begin to appear in the child, and it differs significantly from the thinking of an adult.

According to the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, there are four stages in the development of thinking (Table 9.2).

Table 9.2. The main stages in the development of thinking according to J. Piaget

Basic types of thinking

As the human psyche develops in the process of its socialization, the main way of thinking gradually changes from concrete to more abstract, from external, objective to internal.

The first way a child thinks - visual action thinking(aged 1 to 3 years), that is, thinking in the form of practical actions. Young children learn about the world around them and draw the first conclusions about its structure by trying objects with their hands, taking them apart and breaking them.

Next step - visual-figurative, that is, thinking in the form of visual images and representations (visual, auditory, tactile). It is most developed between the ages of 4 and 7 years, but persists in adults. This thinking is based on practical reality, but it can already create and store images that do not have a direct analogue in sensations (fairy tale characters).

IN figurative thinking, which is most developed among artists, designers, advertisers, tailors, hairdressers and architects, the material for solving the problem is not concepts, but images - more often visual (for musicians - auditory). They are either retrieved from memory or recreated by the imagination. The predominant role in this type of thinking is played by the right hemisphere of a person. The difference from the previous stage is the widespread use of verbal constructions in the formation and transformation of images, as well as the use of abstract concepts.

abstract-logical(abstract or conceptual) thinking works in the form of abstract concepts, symbols and numbers. In this case, a person operates with concepts, not dealing with experience gained with the help of the senses. For example, the ethical terms "justice" and "conscience", the mathematical terms "degree" and "derivative", the economic terms "balance" or "profit" are abstract concepts and cannot be directly perceived by the human senses.

In addition to classifying thinking according to form, there are other ways to single out certain types of thinking. They can differ in the degree of deployment, in the nature of the tasks being solved, etc.

These types of thinking (except for the third, analyzed earlier) are displayed in Table. 9.3.

Table 9.3.

Intelligence(lat. intellect us - mind, reason, mind) - a stable structure of the individual's mental abilities, the level of his cognitive abilities, the mechanism of the individual's mental adaptation to life situations. Intelligence means understanding the essential interconnections of reality, the inclusion of the individual in the socio-cultural experience of society.

The intellect is not reduced to a set of cognitive processes, which in fact are the "working tools" of the intellect.

Modern psychology considers as a stable structure of the mental abilities of the individual, his adaptability to various life situations.

Intelligence as the mental potential of an individual can be the object of psychological diagnostics.

At the beginning of the XIX century. the German astronomer F.W. Bessel (1784-1846) claimed that he could determine the level of a person's intelligence by the speed of his reaction to a flash of light. But only at the end of the XIX century. American psychologist J. M. Cattell (1860) acted as the founder of scientific testology, having developed a system of tests aimed at identifying the mental capabilities of an individual, including intellectual (mental). The scientific concept of human intelligence was being formed.

The development of intelligence as a mental age was studied by the French psychologist A. Wien (1857-1911). The developer of the concept of IQ was the German psychologist W. Stern (1871-1938), who proposed to determine the IQ of a child by dividing his mental age by chronological age.

In 1937, D. Wexler (1896-1981) created the first intelligence scale for adults.

At the beginning of the XX century. English psychologist C. E. Spearman (1863-1945) developed statistical methods for measuring intelligence and put forward two-factor theory of intelligence. It singled out a general factor (factor G) and special factors that determine success in solving problems of a particular type (factor S). The theory of specific abilities arose. Psychologist J. P. Gilford (1897-1987) identified 120 factors of intelligence and presented the structure in the form of a cubic model (Fig. 80).

At the beginning of the XX century. French psychologists A. Binet and T. Simon proposed to determine the degree of development of intelligence in children (intelligence quotient) using a special test scale (IQ). Intelligence, mental development of an individual are interpreted as his ability to perform intellectual tasks available for his age, to successfully adapt to various types of life situations.

In the individual, both genetic and sociocultural factors play a significant role, or rather, the interaction of these factors. Genetic factors - the hereditary potential received by an individual from his parents. These are the initial possibilities for the interaction of the individual with the outside world.

Rice. 80. The structure of the intellect according to J.P. Gilford.

This cubic model is an attempt to define each of the 120 specific abilities based on three dimensions of thinking: what we think about (content), how we think about it (operation), and what this mental action leads to (result). For example, when learning symbols such as Morse code signals (E12), when memorizing the semantic transformations needed to conjugate a verb in a particular tense (DV3), or when assessing changes in behavior when it is necessary to take a new path to work ( AV4), very different types of intelligence are involved

Hundreds of thousands of genes located on 46 chromosomes contain a huge, still little-studied potential of human individuality. However, only the "raw materials" for the construction of complex psycho-regulatory structures are inherited by the individual. The vital needs of an individual can send appropriate requests to individual genetic formations. Various genetic loci, as shown by the studies of Nobel Prize winners R. Robertson and F. Sharp, are capable of functional rearrangements.

The intellectual capabilities of a person are manifested in that strategies, which he develops in various problem situations, in his ability to transform a problem situation into a specific problem, and then into a system of search tasks.

Some people are capable of quick conclusions, intuitive insights, simultaneous coverage of an event in all its relationships, they are consistent in putting forward hypotheses and checking their correctness; others close on the first hypothesis that comes to mind, their thinking is not dynamic. Some try to solve problematic problems without any preliminary assumptions at all, relying on random finds; their thinking is unsystematic, blocked by impulsive emotions. The thinking of many people is stereotyped, unnecessarily standardized.

Qualities of human intelligence

The main qualities of the human intellect are inquisitiveness, depth of mind, its flexibility and mobility, logic and evidence.

inquisitive mind- the desire to diversify to know this or that phenomenon in essential respects. This quality of the mind underlies active cognitive activity.

depth of mind lies in the ability to separate the main from the secondary, the necessary from the accidental.

Flexibility and mobility of the mind- the ability of a person to widely use existing experience and knowledge, quickly explore known objects in new relationships, overcome stereotyped thinking. This quality is especially valuable if we keep in mind that thinking is the application of knowledge, "theoretical standards" to various situations. In a certain sense, thinking tends to be stable, to some stereotype. This hinders the solution of creative problems that require an unusual, unconventional approach. Inertia of thinking is revealed, for example, when solving the following problem. It is necessary to cross out four points arranged in the form of a square with three closed lines. An attempt to act by connecting these points does not lead to a solution of the problem. It can be solved only by going beyond these points (Fig. 81).

At the same time, the negative quality of intelligence is rigidity of thought- inflexible, biased attitude to the essence of the phenomenon, exaggeration of the sensory impression, adherence to stereotyped assessments.

Intelligence- the ability of an individual to comprehend a specific situation in a generalized, schematic way, to optimally organize the mind when solving non-standard tasks. However, the essence of intelligence cannot be understood only through the description of its individual properties. The bearers of intellect are the experience of the mental activity of the individual, the mental space formed in him, the ability to present the structural representation of the phenomenon under study in the mind of the individual.

Logical thinking is characterized by a strict sequence of reasoning, taking into account all the essential aspects in the object under study, all its possible relationships with other objects. Evidence of thinking characterized by the ability to use at the right time such facts, patterns that convince the correctness of judgments and conclusions.

Critical thinking presupposes the ability to strictly evaluate the results of mental activity, to discard wrong decisions, to abandon the actions initiated if they contradict the requirements of the task.

Breadth of thinking lies in the ability to cover the issue as a whole, without losing sight of all the data of the corresponding task, as well as in the ability to see new problems (creativity of thinking).

An indicator of the development of intelligence is its divergence - the subject's unbound by external restrictions (for example, his ability to see the possibilities of new applications of ordinary objects).

An essential quality of the individual's mind is prognostication - foreseeing the possible development of events, the consequences of the actions taken. The ability to anticipate, prevent and avoid unnecessary conflicts is a sign of the development of the mind, the breadth of the intellect.

Intellectually limited people extremely narrowly, locally reflect reality, do not carry out the necessary transfer of knowledge to new objects.

The development of individual qualities of the mind of an individual is determined both by the genotype of the given individual, and by the breadth of his life experience, the semantic field of his consciousness — by the individual system of meanings, the structure of the intellect. In totalitarian social regimes, conformal individuals form the so-called gap thinking, narrowed down to extremely limited everyday limits, and intellectual infantilism is widely spread. In group thinking, stereotypes, stereotyped orientations, schematized behavior matrices begin to predominate. There are deformations both in the content and in the structure of the intellect.

Significant non-pathological disorders in the structure of intelligence - mental anomalies. They are expressed in violation of the entire mental system of the individual - its motivational, goal-forming and goal-achieving regulatory mechanisms. Here are the most common signs of intellectual disability:

• inadequacy of motives for the actions taken;
• violations in goal-setting and programming of actions, control over their execution;
• violations of semantic connections, inadequacy of means to the set goals;
• defects in mental operations (generalizations, classifications, etc.).

Here are some intellectual tests that reveal the qualities of intelligence (Fig. 81-84).

In most intelligence tests, the subject is offered tasks for generalization, classification, knowledge transfer, extrapolation and interpolation. Some tasks operate with drawings and geometric shapes. The success of the subject is determined by the number of correctly completed tasks.

Rice. 81. Tests for divergent thinking

Rice. 82. Choose the desired shape from the six numbered

Rice. 83. Eliminate an extra figure

Rice. 84. Fill in the missing number (extrapolation test)

Test for the detection of abstracting activity

From the words in brackets, select two words that are significantly related to the original word.

1. GARDEN (plants, gardener, dog, fence, earth).
2. RIVER (coast, fish, angler, mud, water).
3. CITY (car, building, crowd, street, square).
4. SHED (hayloft, horses, roof, livestock, walls).
5. CUBE (angles, drawing, side, stone, tree).
6. DIVISION (class, dividend, pencil, divider, paper).
7. RING (diameter, diamond, roundness, gold, printing).
8. READING (eyes, book, picture, print, word).
9. NEWSPAPER (true, applications, telegrams, paper, editor).
10. GAME (cards, players, fines, penalties, rules).
11. WAR (guns, planes, battle, guns, soldiers).

1. Plants, earth.
2. Beach, water.
3. Building, street.
4. Roof, stsny.
5. Corners, side.
6. Divisible, divisor.
7. diameter, roundness.
8. Eyes, print.
9. Paper, editor.
10. Players, rules.
11. Battles, soldiers.

Thinking and intelligence are close terms. Their relationship becomes even clearer when translated into words from the ordinary Russian language. In this case, the word "mind" will correspond to the intellect. We say "intelligent person", denoting by this individual differences in intelligence. We can also say that the child's mind develops with age - this conveys the problem of the development of the intellect.

To the term "thinking" we can assign in our ordinary language the word "thinking" or (less normatively, but perhaps more accurately) "thinking". The word "mind" expresses a property, ability; thinking is a process. When solving a problem, we think, and do not “be clever” - this is the sphere of the psychology of thinking, not intelligence. Thus, both terms express different aspects of the same phenomenon. An intelligent person is one who is capable of carrying out thought processes. Intelligence is the ability to think. Thinking is a process in which the intellect is realized Ushakov D.V. Thinking and intelligence // Psychology of the XXI century / Ed. V.N. Druzhinin. M.: Per Se, 2003, p. 291..

Thinking and intelligence have long been considered the most important and distinctive features of a person. No wonder the term "homo sapiens" is used to define the type of modern man - a reasonable person. A person who has lost sight, hearing or the ability to move, of course, bears a heavy loss, but does not cease to be a person. After all, the deaf Beethoven or the blind Homer are considered by us as great personalities. The one who has lost his mind seems to us struck in the very essence of man.

The description of different kinds and types of thinking is based on the premise that there is no thinking at all: thinking is heterogeneous and subject to detailing. Different types of thinking are divided according to their functional purpose, development, structure, means used, cognitive capabilities.

In psychology, the most common is the following classification of types of thinking: visual-effective, visual-figurative, verbal-logical. This classification is based on the genetic principle and reflects three successive levels of development of thinking. Each of these types of thinking is determined by two criteria. One of them (the first part of the names) is the specific form in which it is necessary to present a cognizable object or situation to the subject in order to be able to successfully operate with them:

The object as such in its materiality and concreteness;

The object depicted in the figure, diagram, drawing;

An object described in one or another sign system.

Another criterion (the second part of the names) is the main ways in which a person learns the world around him:

Through practical action with the object;

By operating with figurative representations;

Based on logical concepts and other symbolic formations.

The main characteristic of visual-active thinking is determined by the ability to observe real objects and learn the relationship between them in the real transformation of the situation. Practical cognitive objective actions are the basis of all later forms of thinking. With visual-figurative thinking, the situation is transformed in terms of an image or representation. The subject operates with visual images of objects through their figurative representations. At the same time, the image of the subject makes it possible to combine a set of heterogeneous practical operations into a coherent picture. Mastering visual-figurative representations expands the scope of practical thinking.

At the level of verbal-logical thinking, the subject can, using logical concepts, learn the essential patterns and unobservable relationships of the reality under study. The development of verbal-logical thinking rebuilds and streamlines the world of figurative representations and practical actions.

The described types of thinking form the stages of development of thinking in phylogenesis and ontogenesis. They coexist in an adult and function in solving various problems. Therefore, they cannot be evaluated in terms of greater or lesser value. Verbal-logical thinking cannot be the “ideal” of thinking in general, the end point of intellectual development.

Intelligence (from Latin intellectus - understanding, understanding, comprehension) in psychology is defined as a general ability to know and solve problems, which determines the success of any activity and underlies other abilities. The intellect is not reduced to thinking, although mental abilities form the basis of intellect. In general, the intellect is a system of all human cognitive abilities: sensation, perception, memory, representation, imagination and thinking. The concept of intelligence as a general mental ability is used as a generalization of behavioral characteristics associated with successful adaptation to new life tasks.

In 1937, D. Wexler proposed the first version of his test for measuring intelligence. He created a scale for measuring intelligence not only for children, but also for adults. The Wexler intellectual scale for children has been translated into Russian, adapted and widely used in our country. The Wechsler scale differed significantly from the Stanford-Binet test. The tasks that were offered to the subjects according to the method of L. Termen were the same for all ages. The basis for evaluation was the number of correct answers given by the subject. Then this number was compared with the average number of responses for the subjects of this age group. This procedure greatly simplified the calculation of IQ. D. Wexler proposed a qualitative classification of the levels of intelligence development, based on the frequency of occurrence of a certain IQ:

69 and below - mental defect (dementia);

70-79 - borderline level of development;

80-89 - reduced rate of intelligence;

90-109 - average level of intelligence;

110 - 119 is a good norm;

120-129-high intelligence;

130 and above - a very high intelligence.

At present, interest in intelligence tests has significantly weakened, first of all, this is due to the low predictive value of these methods: subjects with high scores on intelligence tests do not always achieve high achievements in life, and vice versa. In this regard, the term “good intelligence” even appeared in psychology, which is understood as intellectual abilities that are effectively implemented in a person’s real life and contribute to his high social achievements.

Today, despite attempts to identify new "elementary intellectual abilities", researchers are generally inclined to believe that general intelligence exists as a universal mental ability. In connection with the successes in the development of cybernetics, systems theory, information theory, etc., there has been a tendency to understand intelligence as the cognitive activity of any complex systems capable of learning, purposeful processing of information and self-regulation. The results of psychogenetic studies indicate a high level of genetic conditioning of intelligence. Non-verbal intelligence is more trainable. The individual level of intelligence development is also determined by a number of environmental influences: the "intellectual climate" of the family, the birth order of a child in the family, the profession of parents, the breadth of social contacts in early childhood, etc.

The driving mechanism of rational cognition is thinking. This is not a stimulus to action, not fuel, not a steering gear, but the most important thing in a car is its engine, i.e. the most important part of the machine.

Depending on the goals and objectives, theoretical preferences and vocabulary, scientists give a variety of definitions of thinking: for some it is the process of modeling non-random relations of the surrounding world on the basis of axiomatic provisions, for others it is an active, purposeful, mediated, generalized and abstracting reflection of essential properties and relations of the external world, and at the same time the process of creating new ideas. But one thing is certain: thinking is a process of cognitive activity of an individual, characterized by a generalized and indirect reflection of reality.

Thinking is the highest level of human knowledge. It allows you to gain knowledge about such objects, properties and relationships of the real world that cannot be directly perceived at the sensory level of knowledge.

One of the most common in psychology is the classification of types of thinking depending on the content of the problem being solved. Here, subject-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking are distinguished. Features of object-effective thinking are manifested in the fact that problems are solved with the help of a real, physical transformation of the situation. Visual-figurative thinking is connected with the operation of images. This type of thinking is spoken about when a person, solving a problem, analyzes, compares, generalizes various images, ideas about phenomena and objects. Verbal-logical thinking functions on the basis of linguistic means and represents the latest stage in the historical development of thinking. It is characterized by the use of concepts and logical constructions.

Thinking generalizes, highlights the general in the individual, the repetitive in the unique, and the generic in the individual. Thinking behind the external reveals the internal, behind the phenomena - the essence. It abstracts, distracts, systemizes, puts things in order, builds hierarchies and ranks. Thinking seeks law where chance reigns.

The forms of logical thinking are the concept, judgment, conclusion. The concept reflects the general principles and properties of objects. This is such a component of thought that singles out objects from a certain subject area and generalizes them by pointing to their common and distinctive feature. Judgment is a connection of concepts, with the help of which dependencies between things are reflected. An inference is a connection between several propositions. Concepts can be subjected to various operations - division, generalization, restriction, etc.

The forms and laws of thinking are studied by logic, the mechanisms of its flow are the subject of study of psychology and neurophysiology. Cybernetics analyzes thinking in connection with the tasks of modeling certain mental functions.

Often, thinking is replaced by another word - “intellect” (from Latin intellectus - mind, reason, reason, ability to think, rational knowledge), which is given no fewer definitions than thinking - only in psychology there are several dozen interpretations of intelligence, depending on theoretical approach. Thus, according to the structural-genetic approach of J. Piaget, the intellect is interpreted as the highest way of balancing the subject with the environment, characterized by universality. According to the cognitivist approach, intelligence is a set of cognitive operations, and in the factor-analytical approach, based on a set of test indicators, stable factors are found (C. Spearman, L. Thurstone, H. Eysenck, S. Barth, D. Wexler, F. Vernon).

One Norwegian scientist has been conducting an experiment for many years. During lectures that he gives in different countries, he asks the audience to complete a simple task - to draw a map of Europe. As a result, he is the owner of several thousand such maps, none of which is similar to the other, but all together - to the real geographical Europe. It turned out that every nation has its own Europe, Europe, and even its outlines are perceived differently by everyone.

Naturally, the Norwegian scientist was largely concerned with the question of how Europeans perceive his native land. It is here that the difference is most noticeable. If Norwegian students drew a huge ledge hanging over a very modest territory, and the British Isles, for example, were often forgotten, then other Europeans, carefully outlining the states of continental Europe, sometimes completely omitted those lands that are called the Scandinavian Peninsula - as not playing a large roles in real Europe.

The properties and possibilities of the intellect seem to many to be limitless, hence the inconsistency in the definition of its nature and functions. On the one hand, the intellect is a system of mental processes that ensure the realization of a person's ability to assess the situation, make decisions and, in accordance with this, regulate their behavior, on the other hand, the ability to know and logical thinking. On the one hand, the one who is able to highlight the main thing in a familiar problem, analyze it, breaking it into its component parts, and find ways to solve the problem, has intelligence, on the other hand, intelligence is especially important in non-standard situations - as a symbol of teaching a person everything new.

In psychology, there is the concept of general intelligence and its two substructures: verbal and non-verbal. General intelligence is understood as a complex integral quality, a certain synthesis of the properties of the psyche, which together ensure the success of any activity. Verbal intelligence is an integral formation, the functioning of which is carried out in a verbal-logical form, relying mainly on knowledge. Non-verbal intelligence is an integral formation, the functioning of which is associated with the development of visual-effective thinking based on visual images and spatial representations.

The structure of intelligence depends on a number of factors: age, level of education, specificity, professional activity and individual characteristics. For example, D. Wexler introduced the concept of "age norm". The subject received a test score based on a comparison of his results with the average results of the age group to which he belonged.

A resident of the UK decided to become the smartest person in the world. In his opinion, for this it is enough to read the Encyclopædia Britannica in full. The editor of Esquire magazine, Alexander Jacobs, nevertheless decided to try to read the Encyclopædia Britannica from cover to cover. He has already advanced to the letter "K", reading a hundred pages a day. Meanwhile, what is the meaning of life, he does not yet know - the letter "C" is still far away. Upon completion of his titanic work, Jacobs wants to write an autobiography called "The smartest man in the world."

It should be remembered that intelligence is knowledge plus action. Therefore, one should not only develop all types of intellect, but also be able to implement rational decisions, show one's intellect not only in words, but also in deeds, since only the result, specific actions determine the level of an individual's intellect.