Adviсe
- Why do you need imaginative thinking?
- Imaginative thinking in a child
- Imaginative thinking in an adult
- A set of techniques and methodologies for the development of imaginative thinking in an adult
The lack of imaginative thinking cannot be called the scourge of civilization, but many people will confidently say about themselves: “Yes, I have little imagination.” At this stage, we should stop and clarify right away: figurative thinking and imagination are fundamentally different psychological processes.
What is imagination? Imagination is unique and modified images that arise at the right moment from figurative memory. The average person usually does not share the concepts of imaginative thinking and imagination and actively uses the latter to solve stressful situations, restore emotional balance and spiritual harmony, obtain a positive mood, interesting interaction with the outside world in the person of colleagues, acquaintances, and friends. But imaginative thinking remains overboard, sleeps peacefully on the bottom of human possibilities and understands, dear, that a person is not even aware of its existence and the need to extract it.
However, imaginative thinking is not a characteristic genetically inherent in a person: everyone receives fantasy, creativity and imagination at the beginning of their life’s journey, and the task of a particular person is to develop his own creative abilities.
What is imaginative thinking?
Imaginative thinking is a person’s cognitive activity, which is based on images. If a person has previously encountered one image or another, then when studying it, the necessary material is retrieved from memory. If the sensations received from the senses are new and unfamiliar, then a person uses the imagination to form an image in the process of cognition.
Over time, the images stored in memory fade. If a person has not addressed a particular image for a long time, he finds it difficult to determine its exact characteristics. For example, when telling her grandchildren about her first teacher, the grandmother describes the main qualities that are significant for her profession in teaching: demanding, smart, strict. At the same time, if her grandchildren ask what color her eyes were, she may think about it, and then give a short answer: “Brown.” It seems to my grandmother that people with brown eyes are more strict than those with any other eye color. Therefore, she is sure that this was exactly the color of her first teacher’s eyes. Although the image of the teacher stored in her memory may differ in some characteristics from the real appearance of the woman.
Attention! As a result of the work of figurative thinking, a person formulates a subjective conclusion about objects or phenomena of reality. This is explained by the individual characteristics of the sensory organs, the different susceptibility of people.
Methods and techniques for teaching adults: how to improve the skill?
A person does not get imagination, fantasy and creativity at the beginning of his life. And his task is to improve these qualities using various methods.
Basic principles
- Mental representation of objects (rack, rain, horse, entrance).
- Reproduction of events and aromas in the head (wedding, words at a concert, church service, scandal in a supermarket).
- Mental representation of illusory and fantastic objects (Kikimora, troll, Cinderella, Beast, Luntik).
- Technique of the square of lateral vision (look straight and at the same time consider the peripheral field of vision).
- Representation of geometric shapes in 3D.
- Mental reproduction of feelings and emotions (sorrow, interest, love, admiration).
Independent exercises
- Constructor collection.
- Tetris game.
- Write a letter to your 12-year-old self in the past.
- Write a story about an empty glass.
- Blots (look at a stain or blot and form an image of what it resembles).
- A drawing of a phrase (“a fly sat on the jam”, “fear has big eyes”).
- Composition of logically related objects (beer-water, rain-fountain).
How people use imaginative thinking
Positive thinking - what is it?
Imaginative thinking helps a person. With it he can:
- Navigate in extreme and unforeseen situations. By presenting a problem in the form of a visual image, a person sees a solution.
- Protect yourself from stress through relaxation. To cope with a bad mood, you can use the simplest way: close your eyes, relax, recall pleasant events, and dream.
Relaxation
- Life in society cannot proceed without communicating with unpleasant people. In order not to fall into depression after unfounded accusations, not to get upset because of overly picky bosses, there is such a way: after communicating with an unpleasant person, you need to imagine him in an absurd pose or in the image of some kind of animal. The art of mental transformation of a formidable offender turns him into a funny character, so negative emotions are replaced by a condescending smile.
- Visualized dreams tend to come true. If an individual has a clear idea of the desired object, he will try hard to get it. A visualized goal gives rise to a specific plan to achieve it.
Important! Imaginative thinking fills a person’s life with meaning and bright colors. It becomes the engine of self-realization and self-development.
Human cognitive development
The entire human mental system requires constant development, starting from birth, and even certain genetic data, without development, can lead to degradation and loss. It was in this vein that the concept of cognitive thinking appeared, which literally means aimed at comprehensive development. Thus, by taking action to develop your thinking in different types and areas, you support cognitive development.
The concept of the human cognitive system is characterized by some basic properties, such as efficiency, algorithmicity, digestibility, adaptability and expressiveness. These are the components for constantly developing your thinking and obtaining positive results. According to research, each person, provided there is no damage, is born with approximately similar inclinations for cognitive development and his further success in this matter depends only on classes and exercises.
The role of images in mental activity
Divergent thinking - what is it?
The development of thinking begins in early preschool age. The child needs it to form vivid ideas about the world around him. However, this does not mean that adults do not need figurative memory. This skill is needed for:
- Storing in memory memories of bright events in life;
- Opportunities to enjoy music;
- Engage in dancing and other types of amateur performances;
- Creation of new works of art, literature, painting;
- Form a visual result of the activity in the mind, which allows you to speed up the process of achieving it;
- Creative approach to solving assigned problems.
Additional Information. Imaginative thinking does not guarantee absolute correspondence to the reality of the image that is stored in a person’s memory. The key points of what is seen or heard are recorded in the mind, the rest is thought out by the human brain on its own in a rational way. Therefore, the products of imaginative thinking are somewhat idealized.
Origami
Making paper figures is very popular among parents and teachers. This requires only a few items - cardboard, paper, scissors. Typically, young children are not very interested in the complex process of folding paper until they see the result. Therefore, it’s good for an adult to start by demonstrating the “miracles” of this type of craft.
Why is it important to develop out-of-the-box thinking?
Creative thinking - what is it in psychology
The development of imaginative thinking is necessary primarily for those people whose professional activities are related to creativity. This does not mean that representatives of other spheres of work do not need to develop this type of thinking. The ability to creatively solve problems allows you to:
- Quickly navigate an unfamiliar situation and successfully adapt to changing conditions;
The individual sees different options for solving the problem
- Be a leader in the work team;
- See several solution options at once, mentally compare them, choose the most optimal course of action;
- Develop new abilities, master new types of activities.
Imaginative thinking in children
In children, imaginative thinking is actively involved in work during games and creative activities. In children aged 1-3 years, the quality of imaginative thinking is significantly influenced by the organization of the spatial environment. The more diverse a child’s toys are, the more fairy tales adults read to him, the more developed his imaginative thinking will be.
During preschool childhood, the child’s imaginative thinking is in close relationship with the sense of touch and the kinesthetic channel for receiving information. This age period is extremely important for the formation of a realistic idea of the world. Parents should not overload their child’s room with wallpaper depicting many fairy-tale characters, fill all the free space with toys, buy a bed in the shape of a car or a wardrobe with a picture of a popular cartoon character covering the entire door. It is important to remember that during childhood a child’s aesthetic taste needs to be formed.
When interacting with real objects in the surrounding world, the child’s eye makes many micromovements. In addition to vision, other analytical systems take part in the formation of an idea of a particular object. It is very important for children to touch a new object, hold it in their hands in order to feel its texture and weight. As a result of the combined work of the child’s senses, a multifaceted collective image of an object is formed. When watching TV, the child's gaze is focused on the screen, and the eye muscles make much less movements. In this case, only 2 analyzers are involved in the formation of the image: vision and hearing. Other channels for obtaining information do not work, which means they are not developing.
Sensory cognition
If parents allow their child to uncontrollably watch cartoons or spend time at the computer, then it will be difficult to develop his imaginative thinking - modern technology dulls the development of imagination and fantasy. The ability to generate your own ideas decreases.
Attention! The basis of a child’s development is sensory knowledge of the world, therefore an excellent example of the development of imaginative thinking in psychology is the involvement of a child in board, story-based and outdoor games. Children who spend a lot of time watching cartoons cannot take part in role-playing games on an equal basis with their peers. In addition, they experience difficulties in other types of children's activities: they do not know how to draw on a free topic, in modeling they prefer to strictly follow instructions, and they are afraid to show initiative.
Imaginative thinking in adults
An adult’s imaginative thinking is manifested in his perception of the surrounding reality. This process is inextricably linked with attention, memory and imagination.
Developed imaginative thinking is a necessary condition for the successful work of designers, directors, choreographers, and photographers. For people whose professional work is associated with the creation of a new original product (model, performance, dance, artistic composition), the generation of many images by thinking is a source of inspiration. They know how to see the unusual in the ordinary, they are able to discern the genius inclinations of a child. They achieve professional excellence due to a high level of development of imaginative thinking.
People can be roughly divided into 3 types: kinesthetic, visual and auditory. For a kinesthetic learner, sensory images are extremely important in the process of perceiving reality. To understand the essence of the operation of a mechanism, he needs to touch it, press buttons. Auditory learning in everyday life often relies on sounds. A visual student orients himself in a situation based on visual images and clarity.
Storyteller's experiment
Gianni Rodari remembers experimenting with children in class with the randomly chosen word “wardrobe.” Taken separately, it would hardly be able to evoke any emotions - no one would laugh or cry when thinking about the closet. However, if you connect the concept of “closet” with the concept of “dog”, then everything becomes completely different. The easiest way to link these two images together is to use prepositions. For example, “dog in the closet”, “dog on the closet”. Then the imagination will suggest various images - it could be a dog running with its own booth on its back along the street. Or a dog who has a personal closet with different outfits.
Examples of imaginative thinking
Metaphor
Metaphors are good examples of figurative thinking:
- “Stomp like an elephant” - this comparison is used when a person wants to emphasize that someone makes too much noise when walking;
- “Hungry like a wolf” - this figurative comparison is used when they want to emphasize that a person is very hungry;
- “Sings like a nightingale” - this is what they say when they want to emphasize the very beautiful voice of a singer.
Imaginative thinking is one of the types of mental activity, which, along with concrete-practical, verbal-logical and abstract thinking, takes part in the formation of a person’s adequate understanding of the surrounding reality. The sensitive period for the development of imaginative thinking is preschool childhood. For the full development of a child’s imaginative thinking, parents need to competently organize the developmental environment at home, shape the child’s aesthetic taste, stimulate his cognitive interest and productive activities.
Development of imaginative thinking
