Thinking.

Chapter 8
 Nature of Thinking: Thinking is a higher mental process that involves analysing and
drawing meaning from the information which we receive from our environment.
 It is considered as the base of all the cognitive activities like Problem Solving, Decision
Making, etc.
 It is an internal mental process that can be understood from our overt Behaviour
 It is goal-directed in nature

Building Blocks of Thought:

People usually think by means of mental images or thoughts which are discussed below-

 Mental images: It is defined as a mental representation of sensory experience

 We usually think about places, events, etc
 For example, using maps and locating different places there subsequently requires
the use of mental images.

Images are of two types-

 Memory image includes those images that resemble the object or event being
represented.
 Eidetic Image is usually a sharp and detailed visual representation of something that
has been seen.
 Concepts: Whenever we come across a novel object we try to understand what it
actually is, what its features and characteristics are and we try to match it with
features of the existing category, and if it is a perfect match we include that object
in the category with whom it’s features match.
 A concept is defined as the mental representation of categories and refers to
those ideas, objects which share common properties and features.
Concepts are of two types-
 Natural concepts have no set of properly defined features that are based on
prototypes.
 Logical Concepts are the ones that can be clearly defined by a set of rules or
features.

Why do we need to form concepts?

We need to form concepts because of the reasons mentioned below:

 It helps in Organizing our knowledge and that makes our knowledge accessible when we need it.
 Saves our time and effort.
 We form concepts to make our thought process quick and efficient.
 The processes of Thinking: Thinking uses mental images & concepts as the base. Now we will
discuss how thinking proceeds in a particular area: problem solving.
  Problem solving: problem solving is thinking that is goal directed. Almost all our day-to-day
activities are directed towards a goal. Not all problems are in the form of obstacles or hurdles
that one faces. It could be any simple activity that you perform to reach a defined goal.
Obstacles to Solving problems: Two major obstacles to solving a problem are mental set & lack
of motivation.
1. Mental set: It is defined as the tendency of a person to solve problems in an already tried
mental operation or steps and tested manner and at times leads to rigidity which obstructs
us in solving problems in a unique manner.
Like mental set, functional fixedness in problem solving occurs when people fail to solve a
problem because they are fixed on thing's usual or daily function.
2. Lack of Motivation: It is also another reason why people fail to solve problems because even
if a person has a sharp mind and intelligence but lacks motivation then that intelligence is of
very little use.
 Reasoning: It is a process that involves inference and is used in logical thinking and
problem solving and conclusions are drawn in reasoning on the basis of the information
and facts available.

Deductive & Inductive Reasoning:

Deductive Reasoning begins with making a general assumption about something and draws
conclusions on the basis of those assumptions. It is Reasoning from general to particular or
in other words deductive reasoning is a type of logical thinking that starts with a general
idea and reaches a specific conclusion. It’s sometimes is referred to as top-down thinking or
moving from the general to the specific.

For example: All bald men are grandfathers. Amit is bald. Therefore, Amit is a grandfather,”

Inductive Reasoning is based on specific facts and observations. It involves drawing a

general conclusion based on a particular observation. In other words, you’re making an
educated or informed guess based on the information or data that you have.

For example: Hadi is an excellent swimmer. His family has a swimming pool. Hadi's
sister Maria must also be an excellent swimmer

 Decision Making: Decision-Making is a kind of problem-solving in which we have several

alternatives and after evaluating the cost and benefit associated with each alternative,
the best alternative must be chosen.
 Judgment and Decision Making are interrelated processes. However, judgment is a
process by which we form opinions, arrive at conclusions, and make critical
evaluations about objects, events, and people on the basis of available information.
 Nature & process of Creative Thinking: Creative thinking is also known as lateral
thinking. Creative thinking is when someone is able to produce a vast amount of ideas
and put them together in a way that may differ from someone else. A creative thinker
often thinks outside the box and beyond the standard level of problem-solving. A person
that is creative can make something new out of previous thoughts, things, or ideas.
 Nature of Creative thinking: Creative thinking is distinguished from other types of
thinking by the fact that it involves the production of novel & original ideas or
 solutions to problems. It is important to know that, besides novelty, originality is
also an important characteristic of creative thinking. Creative thinking thus refers to
originality & uniqueness of ideas or solutions that did not previously exist.
[Link], a pioneer in creativity research, proposed two types of thinking:
convergent & divergent. Convergent thinking refers to thinking that is required to
solve problems which have only one correct answer. The mind converges to the
correct solution. For example: 2+2= 4
Divergent thinking which is an open ended thinking where the individual can think
of different answers to the questions or problems in terms of her/his experiences.
Such kind of thinking helps in producing novel & original ideas.
Divergent thinking abilities generally include fluency, flexibility, originality &
elaboration
 Fluency: is the ability to produce many ideas for a given task or a problem. The
more ideas a person produces, the higher his fluency ability.
 Flexibility: it indicates variety in thinking. It may thinking of different uses of an
object or different interpretation of a picture or different ways of solving a problem.
 Originality: it is the ability to produce ideas that are rare or unusual by seeing new
relationships, combining old ideas with new ones, looking at things from different
perspective.
 Elaboration: it is the ability that enables a person to go into details & workout
implications of new ideas.
 Process of Creative thinking: the starting point in creative process is the need to think
or bring out something new which initiates the effort. There are four stages in the
process of creative thinking.
 Preparation: The problem is clearly formulated in this stage and facts and information about the
problem is collected to comprehensively understand and analyse the problem
 Incubation: It is the second stage of Creative Thinking and is characterized by a feeling of getting
stuck as creative ideas don’t occur when we consciously think about the problem. They usually
occur during the time of relaxation.
 Illumination: It is the third stage of Creative Thinking where there is the sudden realization of
the solution of the problem into the consciousness.
 Verification: In the fourth stage of Creative Thinking, the solution is found in the illumination
stage is tested to see that whether it works or not and what kind of modification is needed is
also considered.
 Thought & language: there is a relationship between language & thought.
 Language as Determinant of thought: Benjamin Lee Whorf had this point of view that the
language we use determines the content of our thought which is termed the Linguistic
Relativity Hypothesis.
 The extent to which individuals can think is to a large extent determined by the
language we use.
 Thought as Determinant of Language:
 Piaget believed that thought not only determines language, it precedes it
 Children form an internal representation of the world.
 Through thinking, language is just a vehicle for thought.
  A child’s observation and imitation of the other person’s behaviour involves
thinking but no language.
 Different origins of Language & Thought:
 Lev Vygotsky who is an esteemed Russian Psychologist was of the view that
language and thought to develop separately in a child until about two years of age
when they merge
 Before 2 years of age, thought is experienced more in action rather than verbal.
 Around 2 years of age child begins to express his/her thought verbally and in a
rational way.
 Development of language & language use
 Meaning & Nature of language: initially you learnt to communicate in the language
being used at home ( usually in mother tongue), went to school & learnt the formal
language & we’re promoted to higher grades & learnt other languages. Language
consists of a system of symbols organised by means of certain rules that we use to
communicate with each other. . Language has three basic characteristics: (a) the
presence of symbols, (b) a set of rules to organise these symbols & (c)
communication.
 Development of language: Human Language is more complex, creative, and
spontaneous as compared to the system of Communication which other animals
use. Stages of Language Development are elaborated below:
 Newborn babies and young infants make a variety of sounds which gradually get
modified to resemble words. The first sound produced by babies is crying which is
similar across many situations and pitch intensity changes to signify different states
such as hunger, pain, etc.
 At around 6 months of age, children enter the babbling phase which involves repetition
of a variety of vowel and condiment words.
 By about 9 months of age, these sounds get elaborated to strings to some sound
combinations such as (dadada) into repetitive patterns.
 Around 1st birthday most of the children enter the one-word stage and the first word
usually contains one syllable(example ma,pa).
 Around 18-20 months of age children enter two words stage which exemplifies
telegraphic speech and contains mostly mound and verbs
 Close to their 3rd Birthday which is 2.5 years, children’s language development gets
focused on the rules of the language they hear. This is called Syntactic Development
 Linguistic Noam Chomsky innate proposition of development of language. For him the
rate at which children acquire words & grammar without being taught can not be
explained by learning principles.
 Chomsky believes language development is just like physical maturation. Children are
born with universal grammar. They readily learn the grammar of whatever language they
hear.
 Language Use: Language use involves knowing socially appropriate ways of
communication. When we use language we have various pragmatic intentions such
as requesting, asking, thanking, demanding etc. Language use must be pragmatically
correct or contextually appropriate besides being grammatical & meaningful.