The title of developing intelligence and thinking. What is the difference between thinking and intelligence. Psychology study guide

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

Intelligence is not limited to a set of cognitive processes, which are, in fact, the "working means" of intelligence.

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

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

At the beginning of the XIX century. German astronomer FW Bessel (1784-1846) claimed that he could determine the level of intelligence of a person 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, developing a system of tests aimed at identifying the mental capabilities of the individual, including intellectual (mental). The scientific concept of human intelligence was formed.

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

In 1937, D. Veksler (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 highlighted a general factor (factor G) and special factors that determine success in solving problems of a specific type (factor S). The theory of specific abilities arose. Psychologist J.P. Guilford (1897-1987) identified 120 factors of intelligence and presented their 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 intelligence development in children (intelligence quotient) by means of a special test scale (IQ). Intelligence, mental development of an individual is 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 are the hereditary potential received by an individual from their parents. These are the initial possibilities of the individual's interaction with the outside world.

Rice. 80. The structure of intelligence according to J. P. Guildford.

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

Hundreds of thousands of genes located on 46 chromosomes contain a huge, still poorly understood potential of human individuality. However, only "raw materials" for building complex psychoregulatory structures are passed on to an individual by inheritance. The vital needs of an individual can send corresponding requests to individual genetic formations. Various genetic loci, as studies by Nobel laureates R. Robertson and F. Sharp have shown, are capable of functional rearrangements.

The intellectual capabilities of a person are manifested in that strategy, 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, one-time coverage of an event in all its interconnections, they are consistent in putting forward hypotheses and checking their correctness; others lock on to the first hypothesis that comes to mind, their thinking is non-dynamic. Some try to solve problematic problems without any preliminary assumptions at all, hoping for chance finds; their thinking is haphazard, obscured by impulsive emotions. The thinking of many people is stereotyped, overly standardized.

Qualities of human intelligence

The main qualities of human intelligence are curiosity, depth of mind, its flexibility and mobility, consistency and evidence.

Inquisitive mind- the desire to comprehensively cognize 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 make extensive use of existing experience and knowledge, to quickly investigate known objects in new relationships, to overcome stereotyped thinking. This quality is especially valuable if we bear in mind that thinking is the application of knowledge, "theoretical measurements" to various situations. In a sense, thinking tends to be stable, somewhat stereotyped. This prevents the solution of creative tasks that require an unusual, unconventional approach. Sluggishness of thinking is revealed, for example, when solving the following problem. It is necessary to cross out four points in the form of a square with three closed lines. An attempt to act by connecting these points does not lead to the solution of the problem. It can be solved only on condition of going beyond these points (Fig. 81).

At the same time, the negative quality of intelligence is rigidity of thinking- inflexible, prejudiced attitude towards the essence of the phenomenon, exaggeration of sensory impressions, adherence to stereotyped assessments.

Intelligence- the ability of an individual to comprehend a specific situation in a generalized, schematic manner, 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 carriers of intelligence are the experience of the individual's mental activity, the mental space that has formed in him, the ability to present the structural representation of the phenomenon under study in the consciousness of the individual.

Consistency of thinking 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-based thinking characterized by the ability to use at the right time such facts, patterns that convince of the correctness of judgments and conclusions.

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

The 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 unconnectedness of the subject by external constraints (for example, his ability to see the possibilities of new applications of ordinary objects).

An essential quality of the mind of an individual is prognostics - foreseeing the possible development of events, the consequences of actions taken. The ability to foresee, 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 produce the necessary transfer of knowledge to new objects.

The development of individual qualities of an individual's mind is determined both by the genotype of a given individual and by the breadth of his life experience, the semantic field of his consciousness - an individual system of meanings, the structure of intelligence. In totalitarian social regimes, the so-called gap thinking is formed in conformal individuals, narrowed to extremely limited everyday limits, and intellectual infantilism is widespread. In group thinking, stereotypes, stereotyped orientations, schematized behavior matrices begin to prevail. Deformations occur both in the content and in the structure of the intellect.

Significant non-pathological disorders in the structure of intelligence - mental abnormalities... They are expressed in the violation of the entire mental system of the individual - its motivational, goal-forming and goal-achieving regulatory mechanisms. Let's note the most typical signs of impaired intelligence:

• inadequacy of motives for the actions performed;
• violations in goal setting and programming of actions, control over their implementation;
• violation of semantic connections, inadequacy of the means to the goals set;
• defects in mental operations (generalization, classification, 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 test subject's success is determined by the number of correctly completed tasks.

Rice. 81. Tests for thinking divergence

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

Rice. 83. Eliminate the extra figure

Rice. 84. Insert the missing number (extrapolation test)

Abstractive Activity Test

From the words in parentheses, select two words that are essential to the original word.

1. GARDEN (plants, gardener, dog, fence, land).
2. RIVER (shore, fish, fisherman, mud, water).
3. CITY (car, building, crowd, street, square).
4. BARN (hayloft, horses, roof, livestock, walls).
5. CUBE (corners, drawing, side, stone, wood).
6. DIVISION (class, dividend, pencil, divider, paper).
7. RING (diameter, diamond, roundness, gold, seal).
8. READING (eyes, book, picture, print, word).
9. NEWSPAPER (though annexes, telegrams, paper, editor).
10. GAME (cards, players, penalties, penalties, rules).
11. WAR (guns, planes, battle, guns, soldiers).

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

Thinking and intelligence are similar terms in content. Both terms express different sides of the same phenomenon. A person endowed with intelligence is capable of carrying out thinking processes. Thinking and intelligence have always been the hallmarks of humans, because we call humans Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens. However, the concept of intelligence is broader than the concept of thinking. Scientists cannot give a single definition of intelligence. Everyone puts their own nuance into this concept. Some researchers focus on the fact that intelligence is the ability to acquire new knowledge and skills, while others study the social aspects of intelligence. There are two most common definitions of intelligence in science today:

intelligence - the ability to adapt to the environment; intelligence - the ability to solve mental problems.

Many psychologists point out that intelligence has a complex structure. What is included in the structure of intelligence - there are many answers to this question.

At the beginning of the XX century. Spearman concluded that each person is characterized by a certain level of general intelligence (he called it the G-factor). General intelligence determines how a person adapts to their environment. In addition, all people have, to varying degrees, developed specific abilities that are manifested in solving specific problems of adaptation to the social environment. Subsequently, G. Eysenck interpreted the concept of general intelligence as the rate of information processing by the central nervous system (mental rate). However, the hypothesis of "the speed of information processing by the brain" does not yet have serious neurophysiological arguments.

Today the most famous is the "cubic" model of intelligence by D. Guilford. He believed that intelligence can be described in three main categories:

• 1) operations;
• 2) content;
• 3) results.

Cattell highlights potential and crystalline intelligence. He believes that each of us already from birth has a potential intelligence, which underlies our ability to think, abstract and reason. By about the age of 20, this intelligence reaches its greatest flowering. On the other hand, crystalline intelligence is formed,

Rice. 1.

consisting of various skills and knowledge that we acquire as we accumulate life experience. Crystalline intelligence is formed precisely when solving problems of adaptation to the environment and requires the development of some abilities at the expense of others, as well as the acquisition of specific skills. Thus, crystalline intelligence is determined by the measure of mastering the culture of the society to which a person belongs. Potential intelligence determines the primary accumulation of knowledge. From Cattell's point of view, potential intelligence is independent of upbringing and environment. It depends on the level of development of the tertiary zones of the cerebral cortex.

Hebb looks at intelligence from a slightly different perspective. He highlights the intelligence A - this is the potential that is created at the moment of conception and serves as the basis for the development of the intellectual abilities of the individual. As for the intelligence B, it is formed as a result of human interaction with the environment. To date, only intelligence B has learned to evaluate, observing how a person performs mental operations. So far, scientists have not found a way to assess the intelligence of A.

The debate about the structure of intelligence is not accidental. They are not only of scientific interest, but also help to answer the question that worries everyone - on what factors does the development of intelligence depend.

Today, scientists agree that the development of intelligence depends both on innate factors and on the upbringing and the environment of the child. Hereditary factors, chromosomal abnormalities, malnutrition and maternal illness during pregnancy, abuse of antibiotics, tranquilizers or even aspirin in the first months of pregnancy, alcohol and smoking can lead to significant mental retardation of the child. But no matter what potential a child is born with, it is obvious that the forms of intellectual behavior necessary for his survival can develop and improve only upon contact with the environment with which he will interact throughout his life. The richer and more diverse the child's communication with the people around him, the more successful the development of his intellect will be. In this regard, the role of the social status of the family becomes clear. Wealthy families have more opportunities to create favorable conditions for the development of the child, the development of his abilities, his education and, ultimately, to improve the intellectual level of the child. The teaching methods used to develop the child's abilities also influence. Unfortunately, traditional teaching methods are more focused on the transfer of knowledge to a child and relatively little attention is paid to the development of a person's abilities, intelligence, and creative capabilities.

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

· Intelligence is the ability to think.

Thinking is an indirect and generalized cognition of objective reality.

Thinking and intelligence have long been considered the most important distinguishing features of a person. It is not for nothing that the term is used to define the type of modern manHomo sapiens- a reasonable person. A person who has lost sight, hearing or the ability to move, of course, bears a bereavement, but does not cease to be a human being. After all, the deafened Beethoven or the blinded Homer did not cease to be great for us. The one who has completely lost his mind seems to us to be amazed in his very human essence.

First of all, thinking is considered as a kind of cognition. 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 kind of spatial model of the road between home and work. To understand what we are told in the lecture about the wars of Alexander the Great, we need to create some kind of 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. It is an act of perception. If a person, by the sight of a wet roof, concludes that it was raining, 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 immediately given. 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 deduces from it the second model, according to which it has been raining recently.

Thinking, as cognition that goes beyond the immediately given, is a powerful means of biological adaptation. An animal that can indirectly conclude 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 higher chance of surviving than an animal that does not have such an ability. It was thanks to the intellect that man took a dominant position on Earth and received additional means for biological survival. However, at the same time, human intelligence has created colossal destructive forces.

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

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

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

The presence of elements of reason in higher animals does not raise doubts among any of the scientists at the present time. Intellectual behavior represents the pinnacle of mental development in animals. At the same time, as L.V. Krushinsky, it is not something out of the ordinary, but only one of the manifestations of complex forms of behavior with their innate and acquired aspects. Intellectual behavior is not only closely related to various forms of instinctive behavior and learning, but also itself is made up of individually changeable components of behavior. It gives the greatest adaptive effect and contributes to the survival of individuals and the continuation of the genus with sharp, rapidly occurring changes in the environment. At the same time, the intellect of even the highest animals is, undoubtedly, at a lower stage of development than the intellect of man, therefore it would be more correct to call it elementary thinking, or the rudiments of thinking. The biological study of this problem has come a long way, and all major scientists have invariably returned to it. The history of the study of elementary thinking in animals has already been discussed in the first sections of this manual, therefore in this chapter we will only try to systematize the results of its experimental study.

Definition of thinking and intelligence of a person

Before talking about the elementary thinking of animals, it is necessary to clarify how psychologists define human thinking and intelligence. Currently, there are several definitions of these complex phenomena in psychology, however, since this problem is beyond the scope of our training course, we will restrict ourselves to the most general information.

According to the point of view of A.R. Luria, “the act of thinking arises only when the subject has a corresponding motive that makes the task relevant, and its solution necessary, and when the subject finds himself in a situation, regarding the way out of which he does not have a ready-made solution - the usual (i.e., acquired in learning process) or congenital ".

Thinking is the most complex form of human mental activity, the pinnacle of its evolutionary development. A very important apparatus of human thinking, which significantly complicates its structure, is speech, which allows you to encode information using abstract symbols.

The term "intelligence" is used in both broad and narrow sense. In a broad sense, intelligence is the totality of all the cognitive functions of an individual, from sensation and perception to thinking and imagination, in a narrower sense, intelligence is actually thinking.

In the process of human cognition of reality, psychologists note three main functions of intelligence:

Learning ability;

Operating with symbols;

The ability to actively master the laws of the environment.

Psychologists distinguish the following forms of human thinking:

● visual-effective, based on the direct perception of objects in the process of actions with them;

● figurative, based on ideas and images;

● inductive, based on a logical conclusion "from the particular to the general" (construction of analogies);

● deductive, based on a logical conclusion "from the general to the particular" or "from the particular to the particular", made in accordance with the rules of logic;

● abstract-logical, or verbal, thinking, which is the most complex form.

Human verbal thinking is inextricably linked with speech. It is thanks to speech, i.e. the second signaling system, human thinking becomes generalized and mediated.

It is generally accepted that the process of thinking is carried out with the help of the following mental operations - analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization and abstraction. The result of the process of thinking in humans are concepts, judgments and inferences.

Human thinking and rational activity of animals

According to leading Russian psychologists, the criteria for the presence of the rudiments of thinking in animals can be the following signs:

"emergency appearance of an answer in the absence of a ready-made solution" (Luria);

"cognitive selection of objective conditions essential for action" (Rubinstein);

"the generalized, mediated nature of the reflection of reality; the search and discovery of something essentially new" (Brushlinsky);

"the presence and implementation of intermediate goals" (Leontiev).

Human thinking has a number of synonyms, such as: "mind", "intellect", "reason", etc. However, when using these terms to describe the thinking of animals, it must be borne in mind that, no matter how complex their behavior is, we can only talk about the elements and rudiments of the corresponding mental functions of man.

The most correct is the one proposed by L.V. Krushinsky the term rational activity. It allows you to avoid the identification of thought processes in animals and humans. The most characteristic property of the rational activity of animals is their ability to grasp the simplest empirical laws that connect objects and environmental phenomena, and the ability to operate with these laws when constructing programs of behavior in new situations.

Rational activity is different from any form of learning. This form of adaptive behavior can be carried out at the first encounter of an organism with an unusual situation created in its environment. The fact that an animal can immediately, without special training, make a decision to adequately perform a behavioral act, is the unique feature of rational activity as an adaptive mechanism in diverse, constantly changing environmental conditions. Reasoning activity allows us to consider the adaptive functions of the body not only as self-regulating, but also self-selecting systems. This means the body's ability to make an adequate choice of biologically most appropriate forms of behavior in new situations. By definition L.V. Krushinsky, rational activity is the implementation of an adaptive behavioral act by an animal in an emergency situation. This unique way of adaptation of the organism to the environment is possible in animals with a well-developed nervous system.

Thinking is a complex mental process, in which objects and phenomena of the surrounding world are reflected in general and indirectly.

Thinking in its pure form, as a completely independent, self-sufficient mental process, does not really exist, it is inseparable from perception, attention, imagination, memory, speech, etc. Thinking acts as higher process , uniting all human activities.

The ability to find in a new situation what is in common with the previous one, comprehending what is in common in seemingly different situations is the most important distinctive feature of thinking (development of thinking in children - find an extra object, what class the object belongs to, find differences in drawings, etc.)

So, thinking differs from other cognitive processes in that it carries out generalization and indirect knowledge of objective reality.... At the same time, it relies on sensory cognition during the active interaction of a person with a cognizable object.

Thinking operations;

Forms of thinking;

Types of thinking.

Thought operations (processes):

· Analysis - mental division of the whole into parts, properties;

· Synthesis - mental integration of parts into a single whole;

· Comparison is the basis of knowledge; finding similarities and differences between objects;

· Generalization - finding common things in any objects and phenomena and combining them according to common and essential characteristics;

· Concretization - the movement of thought from the general to the particular;

· Abstraction - (based on analysis) a departure from a specific object to its symbol.

Forms of thinking:

· Concept - the transfer of specific properties of an object or phenomenon;

Judgment - something is asserted or something is denied (proposal)

Inference - when from 2 3 judgments we get the following judgment as conclusion;

· Analogy - inference, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ is made on the basis of some similarities ʼʼby analogyʼʼ.

Types of thinking:

By the level of development:

Visual and effective

Visual-figurative

Abstract logical

By the nature of the tasks being solved:

· Theoretical - aimed at explaining the phenomena of reality;

Practical - aimed at transforming reality

By the degree of novelty and originality:

Reproductive (reproductive)

· Productive (creative) or creative.

Intelligence- ϶ᴛᴏ the totality of all mental abilities that provide a person with the ability to solve various problems.

Intellectual activity is a specifically human way of adapting (adapting) to the conditions of one's existence. According to the American psychologist Wechsler, who created the first system for measuring the intelligence of an adult in 1939, intelligence is a global ability to act reasonably, think reasonably, and cope well with life's circumstances.

What determines the development of intelligence:

1. genetic conditioning - the influence of hereditary information.

2. the physical and mental state of the mother during pregnancy (nutrition, health).

3.chromosomal abnormalities (Down's disease).

4.environmental conditions (taking medicines, using drugs, etc.)

Intelligence scores.

To carry out a more or less holistic and, therefore, accurate measurement of intelligence, two “subtests” are usually used:

- verbal- where tasks are suggested that require action using words,

- non-verbal– tasks not related to words, speech.

The total indicator is made up of their sum.

The most popular is the so-called ʼʼIntelligence factorʼʼ, abbreviated as IQ (Eysenck test). This test is associated with the concept of mental age, and at the beginning of the century was used to compare the mental development of a child with the capabilities of his peers. Subsequently, on the basis of calculations of the ratio of mental and chronological (real) age, an indicator called the coefficient of intelligence was derived. Its average value corresponds to 100 points ( from 84 to 116 - normal) , and the lowest can approach 0, the highest - to 200. The bulk of people are considered people with average intelligence. The highest intelligence was found in people whose professional experience is close to the methods of mental operations - scientists, chemists, mathematicians, teachers and students.

Tests for determining the level of intelligence (general abilities) - (except for the IQ test) the Ravenna matrices, Verbal and non-verbal intelligence of D. Wexler, Amthauer's method, SHTUR, etc.

Thinking and intelligence - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Thinking and Intelligence" 2017, 2018.