Productive, or creative, refers to thinking that is not based on past experience. The importance of studying this particular type of thinking for understanding the general mechanisms of solving problems in the absence of past experience was shown in the works of psychologists who considered themselves to be the school of Gestalt psychology. One of the important principles of Gestalt psychology is the principle here and now, which presupposes a description of psychological laws, without referring to the description of the role of past experience. It was these principles that were used by the founder of the school of gestalt psychology M. Wertheimer, as well as the German psychologist K. Dunker, already mentioned in the previous paragraph, to develop a theory productive thinking.
According to K. Duncker (1945), thinking is a process that, through insight problem situation leads to an adequate response. By insight, Dunker, like other Gestalt psychologists, understood the process understanding situations, penetration into it, when various and disparate elements of the situation are combined into a single whole.
The solution to the problem is inherent in it itself, argued K. Dunker. Therefore, there is no need for the subject to refer to past experience, which not only does not help the thinking process, but, on the contrary, can hinder the effective course of thinking due to functional fixation. The problematic situation must first of all be comprehended by the subject, i.e. to be perceived as a whole, containing a certain conflict.
Conflict Is what prevents the decision. Understanding the conflict just presupposes penetration into the situation of solving the problem. Take, for example, the famous experiments of another founder of the school of gestalt psychology W. Köhler, which he conducted during the First World War with great apes - chimpanzees - in the Canary Islands. In these experiments, the monkey tried to reach the bait too far away or too high from it. Conflict this task, obviously, consists in the fact that the monkey cannot reach the bait with its forelimbs. Penetration in the situation should indicate to the monkey that its limbs are too short. Another example of conflict and infiltration is related to the problem where it is required to prove that a metal ball bounces off a metal surface due to deformation, which nevertheless recovers very quickly. Conflict of this task lies in the fact that the subject cannot, due to the rapidity of the deformation, check it. Penetration the situation is expressed in the understanding that two substances recover their shape too quickly so that the effect of deformation can be preserved.
K. Dunker argues that the result of insight, or penetration into the situation of the problem, is the finding functional solution tasks. It arises from a given problem situation and is based on internal and obvious connections with the conditions of the problem situation. To understand any solution to a problem as a solution means to understand it as the embodiment of its functional solution. At the same time, Dunker insists that if the subject is faced with two different tasks that have a common functional solution, the successful receipt of an answer to the first task does not help him in the analysis of the next task, even if he solves these two tasks in a row.
In the examples we have considered, the functional solutions will be, respectively, "lengthening" of the monkey's limbs, which are too short, and slowing down or maintaining the effect of deformation. You can "lengthen" the limbs using a tool - a stick with which the monkey is able to reach the bait. You can maintain the deformation of the ball by covering it with a soft shell, such as paint.
Note that the same functional solution can have different ways of implementation. For example, a monkey will not take a stick, but a box, place it under the bait and climb onto it. And instead of paint that retains the deformation of the ball, you can use a more technologically advanced version of video filming.
Thus, in the theory of K. Duncker and other gestalt psychologists, productive thinking is described as a two-stage process.
At the first stage, the study of the problem is carried out. It provides penetration into the conflict conditions of a problem situation. At the second stage, the process of implementation (or execution) of the previously found functional solution is carried out, the choice of what is really needed to solve the problem, if the functional solution does not include its implementation.
Despite the fact that the theory of productive thinking was developed by K. Dunker back in the 30s. of the last century, it still remains one of the most authoritative psychological theories of thinking. However, her critics very often point out that tasks for quick wits, "Dunker" tasks, are only a small, if not negligible, part of the tasks that we face in the processes of thinking.
This is why later theories of thought rely heavily on thought processes. reproductive character.
THINKING PRODUCTIVE (stages)
(eng. productive thinking) - a synonym for "creative thinking" associated with solving problems: new, non-standard for the subject of intellectual tasks... The most difficult challenge facing human thought, - this is the task of knowing oneself. "I'm not sure," said A. Einstein to the outstanding psychologist M.Wertheimer- is it possible to really understand the miracle of thinking. You are undoubtedly right in trying to achieve a deeper understanding of what is happening in the process of thinking ... ”(Productive thinking. - M., 1987, p. 262). Thinking is akin to art, the miracle of which also resists understanding and cognition. In a paradoxical form, N. Bohr expressed something similar. To the question "is it possible to understand the atom?" Bohr replied that perhaps it is possible, but first we must find out what the word means. "understanding"... Great scientists, to a greater extent than mere mortals, are characterized by surprise before the Great and the consciousness of the modesty of their forces. Bowed to the wonder of thinking and M.Mamardashvili: “Thinking requires an almost superhuman effort, it is not given to man by nature; it can only take place - as a kind of awakening or pre-memory - in the field of force between the person and the symbol. "
Despite doubts, Einstein not only sympathized with, but also assisted Wertheimer in the knowledge of mathematical principles and, starting in 1916, spent hours telling him about the dramatic events that culminated in the creation of the theory of relativity. The psychologist presented the "titanic thinking process" as a drama in 10 acts. Its "participants" were: the origin of the problem; persistent focus on its solution; understanding and misunderstanding, which caused a depression, up to despair; finds, hypotheses, their mental replay; identification of contradictions and the search for ways to overcome them. All this took place against the background of comprehension, rethinking and transformation of the original problem situation and its elements and continued until the picture of the new physics was built. The thinking process took 7 years. The main thing during this period was “the feeling of direction, of direct movement towards something concrete. It is, of course, very difficult to put this feeling into words; but it was definitely present and must be distinguished from later reflections on the rational form of a decision. Undoubtedly, there is always something logical behind this direction; but I have it in the form of a certain visual image ”(Einstein). Direction emanating from the task, ordering the thinking process, representative Würzburg School psychologist N.Oh named the determining trend, and O. Zeltz studied the role of intellectualized (non-sensuous) visual representations - images that play the role of plastic tools of M. p.
Consider a collective way of thinking creative process, that is, an idea of its main stages.
1. The emergence of the topic. At this stage, the need to get started, a sense of directional tension that mobilizes creativity.
2. Perception of the topic, analysis of the situation, Problems. At this stage, an integral holistic image of a problem situation is created, an image of what is and a presentiment of the future whole. Speaking modern tongue, a figurative-conceptual or symbolic-symbolic model is created, adequate to the situation that arose in connection with the choice of the topic. The model serves as a material ("intelligible matter"), in which the leading contradiction is sought, that is, the crystallization of the problem to be solved occurs.
3. In the third stage, the (often painful) work on solving the problem is carried out. It is a bizarre mixture of conscious and unconscious efforts: the problem does not let go. There is a feeling that the problem is not in me, but I am in the problem. She captured me. The result of such a preliminary decision of the work m. B. not only the creation, testing and rejection of hypotheses, but also the creation of special tools for solving the problem. An example is efforts to visualize the problem, the creation of new versions of the figurative-conceptual model of the problem situation.
4. The emergence of the idea (eidos) of the solution ( ). There are countless indications of the decisive importance of this stage, but any meaningful description is lacking and its nature remains unclear.
5. Executive, in fact, a technical stage that does not require special explanations. It is often very laborious when there is no corresponding apparatus for the solution. As I. Newton pointed out, when the problem is understood, reduced to a known type, the application of a certain formula does not require labor. Mathematics does it for us.
The highlighted stages are very arbitrary, but such descriptions are interesting in that they naturally alternate between thinking and visualization ( ), routine work, intuitive acts, etc .; all this is linked by the focus on solving the problem, its concretization.
The above analytical description can be supplemented with a synthetic one. Goethe saw in cognition and thinking "abysses of hope, clear contemplation of the given, mathematical depth, physical accuracy, the height of reason, depth of reason, mobile swiftness of fantasy, joyful love for the sensual." Let us try for a second to imagine that Goethe owes all this to schooling, and the question immediately arises, what collective of teachers could provide such education and development of thinking? It is just as difficult to imagine a scientist who would undertake to study the work of such an incredible orchestra, which was the thinking of a great poet, thinker, scientist. Each researcher of thinking chooses to study K.-L. one instrument, inevitably losing the whole. This is not a big problem as long as the researcher does not impose the instrument he studied as the only or main one, for example, on the education system. (V.P. Zinchenko.)
A large psychological dictionary. - M .: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .
See what "PRODUCTIVE THINKING (stages)" is in other dictionaries:
The process of cognitive activity of an individual, characterized by a generalized and mediated reflection of reality. Distinguish the following types of M.: verbal logical, visually figurative, visually effective. Theoretical M. is also distinguished ...
- (engl. creative process). Many genius people reported that their discoveries are the result of the fact that the decision "as it is" arises in their minds and that all they have to do is write down the "heard" or "seen". Circumstances like this ... ... Big psychological encyclopedia
Enlightenment or sudden awareness in the course of a strong inner experience. Brief explanatory psychological psychiatric dictionary. Ed. igisheva. 2008. insight ... Big psychological encyclopedia
Creation- a process of activity that creates qualitatively new material and spiritual values or the result of creating an objectively new one. The main criterion that distinguishes creativity from manufacturing (production) is the uniqueness of its result. Result ... ... Wikipedia
World economy- (World Economy) The world economy is a set of national economies united by various types of ties Formation and stages of development of the world economy, its structure and forms, the world economic crisis and trends of further development ... ... Investor encyclopedia
FICHTE- (Fichte) Johann Gottlieb (1762 1814) German. philosopher, one of the largest representatives of it. idealism (German classical philosophy). Prof. University of Jena (from 1794), rector of Berlin University (from 1811). F. developed the foundations of his philosophy in the so-called. science ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
creation- CREATIVITY is a category of philosophy, psychology and culture, which expresses the most important meaning of human activity, which consists in increasing the diversity of the human world in the process of cultural migration. Term and concept. T.… … The Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science is (Greek word, speech, legend) a language of description that, thanks to its primordial symbolism, is convenient for expressing eternal models of personal and social behavior, some essential laws of the social and natural cosmos. M. is ... ... Modern philosophical dictionary
stages) (English productive thinking) is a synonym for "creative thinking" associated with solving problems: new, non-standard intellectual tasks for the subject. The most difficult task facing human thought is the task of knowing itself. “I’m not sure,” said A. Einstein to the outstanding psychologist M. Wertheimer, “whether it is really possible to understand the miracle of thinking. You are undoubtedly right in trying to achieve a deeper understanding of what happens in the process of thinking ...” (Productive thinking. - M., 1987, p. 262). Thinking is akin to art, the miracle of which also resists understanding and cognition. In a paradoxical form, N. Bohr expressed something similar. To the question "is it possible to understand the atom?" Bohr replied that perhaps it was possible, but first we must find out what the word "understanding" means. Great scientists, to a greater extent than mere mortals, are characterized by surprise before the Great and the consciousness of the modesty of their forces. M. Mamardashvili also bowed to the miracle of thinking: "Thinking requires an almost superhuman effort, it is not given to man by nature; it can only take place - as a kind of awakening or remembering right - in a force field between a person and a symbol." Despite doubts, Einstein not only sympathized with, but also assisted Wertheimer in the knowledge of mathematical principles and, starting in 1916, spent hours telling him about the dramatic events that culminated in the creation of the theory of relativity. The psychologist presented the "titanic thinking process" as a drama in 10 acts. Its "participants" were: the origin of the problem; persistent focus on its solution; understanding and misunderstanding, which caused a depression, up to despair; finds, hypotheses, their mental replay; identification of contradictions and the search for ways to overcome them. All this took place against the background of comprehension, rethinking and transformation of the original problem situation and its elements and continued until the picture of the new physics was built. The thinking process took 7 years. The main thing during this period was "a feeling of direction, of direct movement towards something concrete. Of course, it is very difficult to express this feeling in words; but it was definitely present and should be distinguished from later reflections on the rational form of a decision. Undoubtedly, this direction is always there is something logical, but I have it in the form of a certain visual image "(Einstein). The direction that comes from the task, regulating the process of thinking, the representative of the Würzburg school, psychologist N. Akh called the determinant tendency, and O. Zeltz studied the role of intellectualized (non-sensuous) visual representations - images that play the role of plastic tools of M. p.
Consider a collective image of the creative thinking process, that is, the idea of its main stages.
1. The emergence of the topic. At this stage, there is a sense of the need to start work, a sense of directed tension that mobilizes creative forces.
2. Perception of the topic, analysis of the situation, awareness of the problem. At this stage, an integral holistic image of a problem situation is created, an image of what is and a presentiment of the future whole. In modern terms, a figurative-conceptual or sign-symbolic model is created, adequate to the situation that arose in connection with the choice of the topic. The model serves as a material ("intelligible matter"), in which the leading contradiction, conflict is sought, that is, the crystallization of the problem to be solved occurs.
3. In the third stage, the (often painful) work on solving the problem is carried out. It is a bizarre mixture of conscious and unconscious efforts: the problem does not let go. There is a feeling that the problem is not in me, but I am in the problem. She captured me. The result of such a preliminary decision of the work m. B. not only the creation, testing and rejection of hypotheses, but also the creation of special tools for solving the problem. An example is efforts to visualize the problem, the creation of new versions of the figurative-conceptual model of the problem situation.
4. The emergence of the idea (eidos) of the solution (insight). There are countless indications of the decisive importance of this stage, but any meaningful description is lacking and its nature remains unclear.
5. Executive, in fact, a technical stage that does not require special explanations. It is often very laborious when there is no corresponding apparatus for the solution. As I. Newton pointed out, when the problem is understood, reduced to a known type, the application of a certain formula does not require labor. Mathematics does it for us.
The highlighted stages are rather arbitrary, but such descriptions are interesting in that they naturally alternate between thinking, visualization (imagination), routine work, intuitive acts, etc .; all this is linked by the focus on solving the problem, its concretization.
The above analytical description can be supplemented with a synthetic one. Goethe saw in cognition and thinking "the abyss of aspiration, clear contemplation of the given, mathematical depth, physical accuracy, the height of reason, the depth of reason, mobile swiftness of fantasy, joyful love for the sensual." Let us try for a second to imagine that Goethe owes all this to schooling, and the question immediately arises, what collective of teachers could provide such education and development of thinking? It is just as difficult to imagine a scientist who would undertake to study the work of such an incredible orchestra, which was the thinking of a great poet, thinker, scientist. Each researcher of thinking chooses to study K.-L. one instrument, inevitably losing the whole. This is not a big problem as long as the researcher does not impose the instrument he studied as the only or main one, for example, on the education system. (V.P. Zinchenko.)
Productive thinking
productive thinking) M. Wertheimer devoted his entire scientific work two areas: perception and thinking. He formulated a number of postulates, to-rye determined the boundaries of the field of "genuine, beautiful, clear, pure productive processes." First, the external factors that impede these processes are blind habits, prejudices, personal interests and certain types of school drills. Second, these processes are also characterized by certain operations, such as grouping, centering, and reorganization. Third, these operations are quite natural. They are logically determined by the structural requirements of the problem and refer to holistic characteristics. Fourth, more traditional operations, to-rye are involved in these processes, function in a similar way in relation to the characteristics of the whole. Fifth, these processes do not have the character of a simple summation, that is, a sequence of separate, random events, in which associations arise or operations are performed. Thought processes are by no means arbitrary in nature. These processes have a surprisingly harmonious, internal logic of development, which can often be detected only retrospectively. Sixth, productive processes require not only partial, piecemeal factual truths, but also "structural truth." One of the cases that Wertheimer used to illustrate P. m. Was a real story with Karl Friedrich Gauss, who was unusually gifted in mathematics from childhood. At the age of three, Gauss was already correcting his father's bills. The most widely known case demonstrating the genius of Gauss occurred when he was 6 years old. His teacher set up a competition for the class to see which of the students was the first to find the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10. While all the other students were adding numbers, Gauss found that 1 + 10 = 11, and 2 + 9 = 11, and so on. He determined that there are 5 such pairs, and that 5 times 11 is 55. This example demonstrates the reorganization of a number series in light of a specific problem. Reorganization occurs when an individual begins to grasp the internal relationship between components and their overall structure. In essence, thinking requires that a) all problematic situations be considered structurally and that they are treated accordingly, as with structures; b) that operations of structural grouping and allocation are performed; c) that operations are seen and applied in their places in the structure; d ) to use structural transpose (to separate structurally peripheral from fundamental characteristics) and e) to search for structural (corresponding to the whole), and not piecewise (corresponding part) truth. See also Abstract Intelligence, Cognitive Complexity, Mathematically Gifted Children by R.A.Prentki
educational psychologist of the highest category,
Ph.D. Esenzhanova A.A.
Thinking productive and reproductive.
In thinking in a dialectically contradictory unity, various components are intertwined, in this regard, the need arises to highlight the types of thinking we are interested in - productive and reproductive. Although in its essence all thinking is always productive to a greater or lesser extent, in a specific mental activity, their specific weight may be different. In Soviet literature, there is an objection to the separation of these types of thinking, since "any process of thinking is productive." But many scientists who have dealt with the problem of thinking consider it expedient to single out these types (P.P. Blonsky, D.N. Zavalishina, N.A.Menchinskaya, Ya.A. Ponomarev, V.N. Pushkin, O.K. Tikhomirov) ...
The approach to characterizing the thinking of foreign scientists is, as a rule, one-sided: it acts only as a reproductive or productive process. Associationists (A. Ben, I. Herbart, D. Gartley, T. Ribot) characterized thinking from idealistic positions, believing that its essence boils down to isolating dissimilar elements, combining similar elements into complexes, their recombination. The result, in their opinion, is that nothing fundamentally new arises. Representatives of Gestalt psychology (M. Wertheimer, K. Koffka, W. Keller) expressed an approach to thinking as a purely productive process, considering productivity as a specificity of thinking that distinguishes it from other mental processes. They believed that thinking, arising in a problem situation (including unknown links), leads to a solution, as a result of which something fundamentally new is obtained, which is not available in the knowledge fund. The value of Gestaltist research in the application of problematic tasks, the solution of which caused a conflict in the subjects between the available knowledge and the requirements of the solution (M. Wertheimer, K. Dunker), but giving great importance they did not reveal to the insight, "aha-experience" that the insight was prepared by the past experience of vigorous activity of the subject himself. Those. scientists did not show the very mechanism of the emergence of productive thinking, sharply opposed it to reproductive processes, believing that past experience and knowledge act as a brake on the development of thinking. It should be noted that over time, the accumulated research facts forced them to limit the categorical conclusions, to recognize the positive role of knowledge in productive thinking, considering them as a starting point for understanding and solving the problem.
Domestic scientists believed that reproductive thinking, although characterized by less productivity, plays an important role for a person in cognitive and practical activity, giving him the opportunity to solve problems of a familiar structure. In particular, Z.I. Kalmykova emphasized the importance of reproductive thinking in the educational activities of schoolchildren, believing that it provides an understanding of new material and the application of knowledge in practice, when there is no need for their significant transformation. She believed that this thinking is easier to develop (than productive thinking), speaking at the initial stage, plays a significant role in solving new problems for the subject, helping him to make sure that the methods known to him are ineffective. "Awareness of this leads to the emergence of a" problem situation ", that is, it activates productive thinking, providing the discovery of new knowledge, the formation of new systems of connections, which will later provide him with the solution of similar problems."
Of course, the mixing of types of thinking is rather arbitrary, it cannot be productive without relying on past experience, and at the same time, it involves going beyond it, the discovery of new knowledge. We adhere to the point of view of Z.I. Kalmykova, who took as the basis for the division into reproductive and productive thinking, the degree of novelty and the degree of awareness for the subject of the knowledge obtained in this process. “Where the proportion of productivity is quite high, they talk about productive thinking as a special kind of mental activity. As a result of productive thinking, something original arises, fundamentally new for the subject, i.e. the degree of novelty is high here. " According to M.V. Glebova, the most important property of mental activity is the derivation of some knowledge from others with the help of reasoning, which leads to an expansion of the initial knowledge. "... In such an intensive multiplication of knowledge lies the productive nature of mental activity." It is the productivity of thinking, i.e. focus on the discovery of new knowledge, significantly distinguishes it from other mental processes. In addition to subjective novelty, supporters of this point of view highlight the originality of this process and the impact on mental development, which is a decisive link, providing a real movement towards new knowledge.
The term "productive thinking" is widely used in pedagogical literature as a synonym for the student's creative activity. In the psychological and pedagogical literature, the following terms are used as a synonym for the concept of “productive thinking”: “creative thinking”, “heuristic”, “independent”, “creative”; to reproductive: "discursive", "rational", "verbal-logical", "receptive", etc. Most researchers prefer to use the term "productive thinking" to indicate the difference in the concepts of "productive" and "creative" thinking. , and the term "creative thinking" designate the highest stage of mental activity. We are close to their point of view, emphasizing that creative thinking is inherent in those who, carrying out mental activity, discover knowledge fundamentally new for humanity, create something original that has no analogue. They believed that the concept of "creative thinking" is legitimate to use in "relation to persons who make discoveries that are objectively new for mankind" (ZI Kalmykova) and it is the highest form of productive thinking.
But we are interested in those indicators by which to judge creative thinking, since the elements of creative thinking are inherent in productive thinking. In particular, K. Dunker attributed to them: originality of thought; fluency of thought as the number of associations, ideas that arise per unit of time in accordance with some requirement; the ability to receive answers that deviate far from the usual; "Susceptibility" to the problem, its unusual solution; the speed and smoothness of the emergence of unusual associative links; the ability to find new unusual functions of an object or part of it (K. Duncker, 1935). The concepts of "creative" and "productive" thinking as synonyms were designated by P. Torrens, believing that it manifests a sensitivity to shortcomings in existing knowledge, the ability to formulate problems, the ability to formulate hypotheses about the missing elements of this knowledge, etc. (P. Torrans, 1964).
Based on research interest, productive thinking includes not only the ability to listen, understand information, speak, read, write, but also “the ability to motivated vigorous activity, the ability to find various options for solving socially significant problems, getting out of various situations, forming general and future professional culture ”.
Characterizing productive thinking as being different from other mental processes and possessing its own specifics, we consider it expedient to move on to analyzing the mechanism of action of productive thinking. An effective technique is "analysis through synthesis", which was used in studies conducted under the guidance of S.L. Rubinstein,characterizes the mechanism of thinking precisely as a process. In these studies, the subjectwas included in the system of connections and relations in which he was given the opportunity to most clearly discover the desired property, which in turn contributes to the discovery of a new circle of connections and relations of the object, with which he correlates this property. This reflects the dialectic of creative cognition of reality, which can be fully attributed to productive thinking. This development of productive thinking leads to the origin and formation of mental neoplasms - new communication systems, personality traits, her abilities, new forms of self-regulation, marking a shift in mental development.
According to Z.I. Kalmykova, in the productive thought process, there is no fundamental difference between a scientist who discovers objectively new laws of the surrounding world that are not known to mankind, and students who discover only a subjectively new one, since their thinking is based on general laws. But they are distinguished by the level of mental activity leading to the discovery, the conditions for the search for new knowledge. Z.I. Kalmykova believed that productive thinking is inherent in adults and children, since they all make subjective discoveries when solving new problems. "... although, of course, the level of this thinking in the second case is lower, since it is carried out in an educational situation in which teachers are provided for the presence of an initial minimum of knowledge in schoolchildren, visual supports that facilitate the search for a solution, etc."
creative graphics design learning
Human thinking includes mental operations of various types and levels. First of all, their cognitive meaning can be very different. Many scientists distinguish between different levels of thought, depending on any form, attribute, criterion, etc.
In the psychological literature, three types of thinking are distinguished in its elementary forms, and several "paired" classifications are also used. In general, the relationship between different types of thinking has not yet been identified. However, the main thing is clear: the term "thinking" in psychology denotes qualitatively heterogeneous processes.
Thus, it is possible to distinguish the classification of types of thinking according to different criteria. The given classification is highlighted conditionally and is not complete. Since all of the listed types of thinking in humans coexist in complex relationships and can be represented in the same activity (see Fig. 1). However, depending on its nature and ultimate goals, one or another type of thinking dominates. According to the degree of their complexity, according to the requirements they place on the intellectual and other abilities of a person, all the named types of thinking are not inferior to each other.
Rice. one
As shown in fig. 1, in thinking, as in the process of generalized and mediated cognition of reality in a contradictory dialectical unity, its productive and reproductive components are intertwined, and their proportion in a specific mental activity may be different. Under the influence of the ever-increasing demands of life for its creative component, it became necessary to single out special types of thinking - productive and reproductive.
It should be noted that in Soviet literature there is an objection to the selection of such species, since any process of thinking is productive. However, the majority of psychologists studying thinking consider it expedient to single out these types (P.P. Blonsky, N.A. Menchinskaya, Ya.A. Ponomarev, O.K. Tikhomirov).
In the literature, these types (sides, components) of mental activity are called differently. As synonyms for the concept of "productive thinking" they use the terms: creative thinking, visual-figurative, independent, heuristic, creative, artistic, lateral, unconventional. Synonyms for reproductive thinking are the terms: reproductive (non-creative) thinking, verbal-logical, visual-effective, rational, receptive, discursive, stereotyped, etc. In this work, the terms productive and reproductive thinking are used.
Productive thinking is characterized by a high degree of novelty of the product obtained on its basis, its originality. This thinking appears when a person, having tried to complete a task on the basis of its formal-logical analysis with the direct use of methods known to him, is convinced of the futility of such attempts and he has a need for new knowledge that allows him to complete the task: this need ensures high activity the subject performing the task. Awareness of the need itself speaks of the creation of a problem situation in a person.
Finding what you are looking for presupposes the discovery of attributes that are not known to the subject, essential for the fulfillment of the assignment of relations, regular connections between the attributes, the methods and techniques with which they can be found. A person is forced to act in conditions of uncertainty, to outline and try a number of possible options for implementation, to make a choice between them, sometimes without having sufficient grounds for that. He looks for a clue to a solution based on hypotheses and their testing, i.e. methods are based on a known foresight of what can be obtained as a result of transformations. An essential role in this is played by generalizations, which make it possible to reduce the amount of that information, based on the analysis of which a person comes to the discovery of new knowledge, to reduce the number of operations carried out in this case, "steps" to achieve the goal.
As L.L. Gurov, its meaningful, semantic analysis, aimed at revealing the natural relations of objects in the task, turns out to be very fruitful in finding a way to solve a problem when performing tasks. In it, the figurative components of thinking play an essential role, which make it possible to directly operate with these natural relations of objects. They represent a special, figurative logic that makes it possible to establish connections not with two, as in verbal reasoning, but with many links of the analyzed situation, to act, according to L.L. Gurova, in multidimensional space.
In studies conducted under the leadership of S.L. Rubinstein, "analysis through synthesis" is put forward as an effective technique used in productive thinking. On the basis of such analysis, the desired property of the object is revealed when the object is included in the system of connections and relations in which it more clearly reveals this property. The found property opens up a new circle of connections and relations of the object, with which this property can be correlated. This is the dialectic of creative cognition of reality.
In this process, as many researchers note, there is often an outwardly sudden discretion of a solution - insight, "aha-experience", and it often occurs when a person was not directly involved in solving a problem while completing a task. In reality, such a decision was prepared by past experience, depends on the previous analytical-synthetic activity and, first of all, on the level of verbal-logical conceptual generalization achieved by the decisive one. However, the very process of searching for a solution in its significant part is carried out intuitively, under the threshold of consciousness, not finding its adequate reflection in the word, and that is why its result, "breaking through" into the sphere of consciousness, is perceived as an insight, allegedly not associated with the activity previously carried out by the subject. aimed at discovering new knowledge.
Although thinking as a process of generalized and indirect cognition of reality always includes elements of productivity, its proportion in the process of mental activity can be different. Where the proportion of productivity is quite high, they speak of productive thinking as a special kind of mental activity. As a result of productive thinking, something original arises, fundamentally new for the subject, that is, the degree of novelty is high here. The condition for the emergence of such thinking is the presence of a problem situation, which contributes to the awareness of the need for the discovery of new knowledge, stimulating the high activity of the subject solving the problem.
The novelty of the problem dictates a new way of solving it: leaps and bounds, the inclusion of heuristic, "search" tests, the great role of semantics, meaningful analysis of the problem. In this process, along with verbal-logical, well-understood generalizations, intuitive-practical generalizations are very important, which at first do not find their adequate reflection in the word. They arise in the process of analyzing visual situations, solving specific practical problems, real actions with objects or their models, which greatly facilitates the search for the unknown, but the process of this search itself is outside the clear field of consciousness, is carried out intuitively.
Woven into conscious activity, being sometimes extended, in time, often very long, the process of intuitive-practical thinking is perceived as an instantaneous act, as insight due to the fact that the result of a decision first "breaks through" into consciousness, while the path to it remains outside it is realized on the basis of the subsequent more detailed, conscious mental activity.
As a result of productive thinking, mental new formations are formed - new communication systems, new forms of mental self-regulation, personality traits, and her abilities, which marks a shift in mental development.
So, productive thinking is characterized by a high novelty of its product, the originality of the process of obtaining it and, finally, a significant influence on mental development. It is a decisive link in mental activity, as it provides a real movement towards new knowledge.
From a psychological point of view, there is no fundamental difference between the productive thinking of a scientist, who objectively discovers new laws of the surrounding world that are not yet known to mankind, and the productive thinking of a student who makes a discovery of something new only for himself, since general mental laws are at the core. However, the conditions for the search for new knowledge are different for them, just as the level of mental activity leading to discovery is also different.
In order to somehow identify these differences, most researchers prefer to use the term "productive thinking" in relation to this type of thinking of schoolchildren, and the term "creative thinking" denotes the highest stage of mental activity carried out by those who discover fundamentally new knowledge for humanity, create something original, unparalleled.
Psychologists have spent a lot of time and effort figuring out how a person solves new, unusual, creative tasks... However, there is still no clear answer to the question of the psychological nature of creativity. Science has only some data that make it possible to partially describe the process of solving such problems by a person, to characterize the conditions that facilitate and prevent finding the correct solution.
J. Guilford was one of the first to try to formulate creative thinking. He believed that the "creativity" of thinking is associated with the dominance of four features in it:
A. Originality, non-triviality, uncommonness of the expressed ideas, a pronounced desire for intellectual novelty. A creative person almost always and everywhere strives to find his own solution, different from others.
B. Semantic flexibility, i.e. the ability to see an object from a new angle of view, to discover its new use, to expand its functional application in practice.
B. Figurative adaptive flexibility, i.e. the ability to change the perception of an object in such a way as to see its new, hidden from observation sides.
D. Semantic spontaneous flexibility, i.e. the ability to produce a variety of ideas in an uncertain situation, in particular in one that does not contain guidelines for these ideas.
Subsequently, other attempts were made to define creative thinking, but they brought little new to the understanding that was proposed by J. Guilford.
E. Bono offers a different interpretation of creative thinking. He presents it as a special kind of non-standard (lateral)
thinking that aims at new ideas. In some cases, the results of non-standard thinking are brilliant creations, in others they are nothing more than just a new way of looking at things, and, therefore, something less significant than genuine creativity. In most cases, creative thinking needs talent to manifest itself, while unconventional thinking is available to anyone who is interested in getting new ideas.
E. Bono also subdivides formulaic and unconventional thinking as productive and reproductive. He argues that the difference between them lies in the fact that in the case of formulaic thinking, logic governs the mind, while in case of non-template thinking, it serves it.
Creative thinking is characterized by the fact that it gives new, previously unknown results. At the same time, the opinion is expressed that the novelty of the products of thinking is a necessary but insufficient indicator of creative thinking. Thus, the question arises about new definitions of the difference between creative and non-creative thinking. A distinction is often made between these thought processes: non-creative (schematic) thinking is expressible with the help of an algorithm, while creative thinking is not algorithmic.
However, most psychologists consider it expedient to single out the types of thinking - productive and reproductive.
Characterized by less productivity, reproductive thinking, however, plays an important role in both cognitive and practical human activity. On the basis of this type of thinking, the tasks of the structure familiar to the subject are solved. Under the influence of the perception and analysis of the conditions of the problem, its data, the desired, functional connections between them, the previously formed systems of connections are actualized, providing a correct, logically justified solution to such a problem, its adequate reflection in the word.
Reproductive thinking is of great importance in the educational activities of schoolchildren. It provides an understanding of new material when it is presented by a teacher or in a textbook, the application of knowledge in practice, if this does not require significant transformation, etc. The possibilities of reproductive thinking are primarily determined by the presence of an initial minimum of knowledge in a person, it has been shown research, is easier to develop than productive thinking, and at the same time plays a significant role in solving new problems for the subject. In this case, it appears at the initial stage, when a person tries to solve a new problem for him in ways known to him and is convinced that familiar ways do not ensure his success. Realization of this leads to the emergence of a "problem situation", i.e. activates productive thinking, providing the discovery of new knowledge, the formation of new systems of connections, which will later provide him with a solution to similar problems. As already noted, the process of productive thinking is spasmodic, part of it is carried out subconsciously, without adequate reflection in the word. First, the word finds expression for its result ("Aha! I found it! I guessed it!"), And then - the very path to it.
Awareness of the solution found by the subject, its verification and logical justification are again carried out on the basis of reproductive thinking. Thus, real activity, the process of independent cognition of the surrounding reality is the result of a complex interweaving, the interaction of reproductive and productive types of mental activity.