General characteristics of imagination and its role in mental activity. General characteristics of imagination

Views are among secondary images, which, unlike primary ones (sensation and perception), arise in consciousness in the absence of direct stimuli, which brings them closer to images of memory, imagination and visual-figurative thinking.

Usually under presentation understand the mental process of reflecting objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality in the form of generalized visual images, and by imagination- a mental process consisting in the creation of new images by processing the material of perceptions and ideas obtained in previous experience.

The product (end result) of the representation is image-representation, or a secondary sensory-visual image of objects and phenomena, preserved and reproduced in consciousness without the direct impact of the objects themselves on the senses.

It is necessary to distinguish from the image-representation as a product performance as a process of deliberate and voluntary creation of an image and mental manipulation (operation) of it when solving various kinds of problems.

Representations are in a complex relationship with other mental processes.

With sensation and perception, representation is related by the figurative, visual form of their existence. But sensation and perception always precede representation, which cannot arise out of nowhere. The representation is precisely the result of generalization of a number of essential and sometimes unimportant features of an object.

Representations often act as standards. This circumstance brings them closer to the processes of identification. Identification presupposes the presence of at least two objects - real, perceived and reference. There is no such duality in ideas.

Representations are often called memory images, since in both cases a person’s past experience is reproduced. Both of them belong to secondary images that arise without relying on direct perception. But the representation lacks the processes of remembering and storing. In the process of remembering, a person is always aware of the connection with the past, but in addition to the past, the present and the future can be reflected in the idea.

Images of the imagination are very close to ideas. Imagination, like representation, uses material previously received by perception and stored by memory. KD Ushinsky believed that the essence of imagination lies in the combination of images and representations. But still, imagination is a more creative process that develops over time, in which a storyline can often be traced. In representation, the object is more static: it is either motionless, or a limited number of manipulative operations are performed with it. Representation acts as a mechanism for recreating imagination. But besides this, there are also various forms of creative imagination that are not reducible to representation.

The degree of control a person has over the images of his imagination varies greatly. Therefore, they distinguish, imagination arbitrary(active) and involuntary(passive). The degree of arbitrariness of images varies smoothly from one form of imagination to another. Thus, the least degree of arbitrariness of imagination is found in dreams and hallucinations, and the greatest degree is found in creativity. According to the methods of creating images, they also distinguish recreating And creative imagination.

Images-representations serve as the basis for visual-figurative thinking. In thinking processes, the emphasis is on searching and discovering something new, but in imagining processes, such a task is not set.

“The interpenetration of the visual and the generalized” in representations (B. G. Ananyev) constitutes their distinctive feature and allows us to speak of representation as an independent mental process.

Depending on the characteristics of the subject of representation, there are two main types of representations: visual, behind which there is a specific image, and abstract-logical, behind which there are abstract concepts (A. Richardson). Each of these types can have varying degrees of brightness, clarity and controllability.

The most common is the classification of visual representations according to modality (B. G. Ananyev). It includes visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, gustatory And organic representation. The latter are the essence of ideas about the functional states of the body, individual organs and parts of the body. Here, the type of analyzer is taken as the basis for classification.

In accordance with the two main forms of existence of matter, two types of ideas are distinguished, such as ideas about space and ideas about time. Usually, both of them are multimodal, but it is possible to highlight the reflection of spatial and temporal characteristics separately at the level of visual and kinesthetic analyzers.

Based on the temporal relevance of ideas, a classification of images into reproductive and anti cipating(anticipating) (J. Piaget). In turn, each of them can be: a) static(idea of a stationary object); b) kinetic(idea about different types of movement); V) transformative(reflection of transformations of objects known to man - from reflection of the final result to reflection of all stages of transformation of an object from the initial state to the final state).

IV.1.1. Characteristics of the presentation process. The process of representation is usually understood in two senses: as the creation of image-representations and as the operation of them. In both cases, representations acquire a dynamic character.

We can talk about changing perceptions in time And in space. As time passes, the representation may become saturated with details, generalized, or, conversely, become more schematic; may become brighter and more distinct or, conversely, vague and undifferentiated. In space with image-representations, the following basic operations can be performed: mental rotation, large-scale transformations, various types of object movements, combining the components of the represented object, changes in spatial orientation, increment, grouping, splitting, etc.

A special group consists of information transcoding operations associated with a change in the dimension of an object. For example, when reading a geographical map, get an idea of the terrain, and in a drawing lesson imagine and depict three-dimensional object in the form of projections on a plane.

Understanding representation as a process of operating with image-representations presupposes the presence of separate mental operations in this process. All mental operations can be divided into three groups (I. S. Yakimanskaya): 1) change in the process of imagining the position of an object (objects) or its parts (mental rotation, grouping, change in spatial orientation, mental movement of objects, etc.); 2) changes in the process of representing the structure of an object (scale transformations, changes in the representation of the dimension of objects, grouping of objects, etc.); 3) simultaneous changes in position and structure (increment, split, combination, etc.).

Operating and synthesis of images in the processes of imagination is carried out thanks to operations agglutination- combinations of qualities, properties, parts of objects that are incompatible in reality; hyperbolization- exaggeration or understatement of objects, their parts and qualities; sharpening- emphasizing any features; schematization- smoothing out differences and identifying similarities; typification- highlighting the essential in homogeneous phenomena and embodying it in any specific image.

Imagination, or fantasy is a mental process, the essence of which is the creation of new images (objects, phenomena and situations) based on the combination and transformation of ideas existing in memory.

Imagination, like speech, is unique to humans. Imagination exists thanks to speech, because. the speech sign carries the ideal side of reflection, namely: Name things, phenomena. Imagination is the property of the psyche to react not to an object, but to the name of the object, deploying in the human mind the image of the object itself or their combination. Thus, imagination is a process based on speech and memory.

Therefore, the more a person knows, the more developed he is, the richer his imagination. On the other hand, if a person has a rich imagination, but it is divorced from reality and is not connected with his practical (scientific, artistic, industrial, social, everyday) activities, then it becomes painful. Such an unhealthy imagination takes a person away from life in fictional world fantasy, the main purpose of which is the compensatory replacement of life’s failures with invented, imaginary illusions.

The Meaning of Imagination For human psyche huge. It is due, firstly, to the orientation of the imagination towards satisfying very important human needs, such as knowledge, self-affirmation, the need for achievement, and adventure. That is why children love fairy tales so much, these adventures of princes, heroes, knights, princesses, invented and passed down from generation to generation, this imaginary world inhabited by good and evil fairies, animal friends and insidious wizards. After all, the real complex and huge world is not yet accessible to the child. But as you master the language, i.e. mastering a verbal sign, the child opens up the possibility of imaginary life in ideal, i.e. word-based events. He learns to distinguish between good and evil, courage and cowardice, loyalty and treachery. In other words, he first learns to live in the virtual world. And then, having received an initial orientation in the imagination, he masters the real world.

Secondly, imagination- This the basis of creativity. After all, a person is capable of imagining, inventing something that has never happened in practice, and then realizing what he imagined in reality. In essence, all human culture and civilization are the result of the realization of the aspirations and aspirations of humanity, which first appeared in the imagination. This is how the immortal tragedies of Sophocles and Shakespeare, the great novels of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were created. This is how cars and airplanes, television and radio appeared in our lives, and space travel became a reality.

Imagination is based on representation, i.e. images of objects and phenomena once perceived by man.

Representations are less distinct than perceptions; they are more generalized. Imagining, for example, a rose, we evoke in our consciousness not one specific flower, but a certain generalized image or many images at once. This is the performance.

Representations are mobile and changeable. They are divided by types of analyzers, such as sensations and perceptions, i.e. there are performances visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, motor etc.

In addition, representations are divided according to the role played in them by the two main processes underlying imagination: memory and speech. On this basis they divide memory representations And fantasy performances, i.e. those that are based on the use of the virtual capabilities of the ideal side of the speech sign. If memory representations contain images of what was previously perceived, then fantasy representations are derived from the incentive and significative function of the speech sign. It is enough to say to someone: “imagine a monkey with a mobile phone in a convertible” and this is enough for a fantasy idea to arise, although before these words it was not in memory.

In addition, views are divided into single and general. The idea of the monument to Princess Olga in Kyiv is individual, but the idea of the book as such is general.

Representation is the building blocks, a transitional step to the imagination, in which they are combined and transformed, forming its figurative series.

And in the same way, imagination is the most important step in the formation and functioning of other higher mental processes, the crown of which is consciousness.

Physiological basis of imagination

Like all mental processes, imagination due to activity of the brain, its cortex. It closes connections when perceiving and consolidating impressions from the surrounding world. When a person stops perceiving an object, the state of excitation in certain centers of the cortex remains in the form of a “trace”. Such “trace” excitation of the neurons of one analyzer is combined in one way or another with the excitation of another analyzer. The formation of such associative connections in the human cerebral cortex is the physiological basis of imagination. In this case, subcortical centers also play a certain role, in particular, hypothalamus. This structure of the lower parts of the brain is involved in the construction of successively alternating excitations during their mutual transitions from the first signal system to the second and vice versa. The ability to replace direct stimuli with verbal ones provides such analytical and synthetic activity of the human brain, which is based on the operation of trace and directly evoked verbal signs - finely differentiated stimuli. This is how images arise not only of the past, but also of the future, not only of the real and probable, but also of the incredible and unreal. Leading reflection The Russian scientist P.K. named such a formula for mental reflection, which provides forecasting, foresight (vision ahead). Anokhin.

“Numerous irritations with words,” wrote I.P. Pavlov, “... removed us from reality, and therefore we must constantly remember this so as not to distort our relationship to reality.”

It is precisely due to the fact that imagination is closely related to the second signaling system, it can have a profound and powerful physiological effect on the entire body. It is on this connection between a person’s images and his organic states that the theory and practice of psychotherapy is built.

Let's look at some classic examples.

Example one. The French writer G. Flaubert said that while describing the scene of the death of Madame Bovary, he felt the taste of arsenic in his mouth.

Example two. Among medical university students, the so-called “third-year syndrome” is common, when, having become familiar with the symptoms of a number of diseases, learning and imagining them, they begin to “discover” them in themselves.

Example three. If a person only imagines the movement of any part of his own body (arms, legs, head), but does not actually perform this movement, nerve impulses are formed in the muscles responsible for the required movement, which are recorded during the actual execution of movements. This phenomenon even received a special name “ ideomotor act", i.e. imaginary action.

The ideomotor act explains why what a person is afraid of happens. This is easy to understand from the following experiment: here is an athlete standing on a finely balanced platform. As soon as he has the idea that he will fall, the center of gravity of the body instantly shifts in the direction in which, in his opinion, he may fall. In other words, just the idea of falling immediately causes an involuntary movement in the direction of falling.

This is why it is so important to cultivate images of a positive future, train yourself to achieve victory, or, at a minimum, not set yourself up for defeat.

Types and techniques of imagination

There are the following main types of imagination: active And passive.

Active imagination– this is imagination, which is the creation of images in connection with a set goal or a task that has arisen, i.e. allows you to imagine the end result before starting work. Active imagination develops in the process of work, especially when work requires independent effort, when the necessary information is missing, when initiative and willingness to achieve a goal are required.

Active imagination can be restorative and creative.

Recreating imagination is imagination, the images of which are based on a given description of them. Thus, the imagination of literary characters when reading books is a recreating imagination. Studying geographical maps and imagining a particular area is a recreating imagination. Working with stereometric material, studying drawings, volumetric figures– also a recreating imagination. It develops artistic and spatial thinking, enriches the imagery of the psyche.

Creative Imagination involves the creation, construction of new images, original ideas embodied in the products of technical, scientific, artistic or other creative human activity. Creative imagination is a precious gift. It is closely connected with thinking, with mental operations of comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction and generalization. In the creative imagination, the analytical-synthetic nature of the brain processes inherent in this function of the psyche is clearly manifested.

Creative imagination is characterized by a number of techniques, i.e. established ways of creating new images.

These are agglutination, analogy, hyperbolization, emphasis and typification.

Agglutination(from the Greek word “to glue”) is the technique of combining parts from various objects into one whole. For example, the image of a mermaid is the body of a woman and the tail of a fish; centaur - the torso of a man and the body of a bull. The same technique is used in technology (amphibious aircraft) and in art (accordion - accordion body, piano keyboard), etc.

Analogy- a technique for constructing an image based on the principle of similarity. For example, a helicopter was created based on the principle of similarity to a dragonfly, and a locator was created based on the principle of similarity to the orientation organ of a bat.

Hyperbolization- a technique with the help of which, by exaggerating or minimizing something, one achieves maximum expressiveness of an idea. So, the image of Gulliver is, of course, an exaggeration, as is the image of Thumb.

Accenting- highlighting, protruding in the image of one feature. Often used in caricatures, jokes, satire and friendly cartoons.

Typing– the most difficult technique of creative imagination. Images of the most famous literary characters– a striking method of typification. When we say Childe Harold, Faust, Othello, Eugene Onegin - this is high level generalizations typification. A typification that contains a whole bunch of human culture, the virtues and vices of a person of his time, his era. And, at the same time, it is a typification of a person’s character - romantic, jealous or contemplative.

Passive imagination– this is imagination, replacing purposeful productive actions.

Passive imagination can be intentional or unintentional.

Intentional Passive Imagination- these are images that a person indulges in without intending to bring them to life. Beautiful dreams dreams- this is another name for this type of imagination. Dreams are closely related to a person’s desires, to his needs, but they do not even involve thinking through real ways to implement them. This type of imagination is fraught with a certain danger, namely the danger of going into the fictitious world of personal illusions, which can neuroticize a person, i.e. cause mental disturbances in him.

Passive imagination can also occur unintentionally. This occurs when consciousness control is weakened, half asleep, in sleep (dreams), in a state of passion (i.e. stress accompanied by strong emotions), with mental or somatic illnesses (hallucinations).

In essence, unintentional passive imagination is the simplest type of imagination. It is typical for preschool children, since the instability of “trace” excitations in the cerebral cortex leads to the ease of children’s fantasy and lack of criticism of emerging images.

A special type of imagination is dream. A dream is a socially determined and imaginary image of the desired future.

A dream is an extremely powerful motivator of human life. She can perform motive, i.e. motivating reason for human activity. That is why any object made by the mind and efforts of a person can be considered as his materialized, realized dream. Be it an airplane or a car, a spaceship or a man-made house.

A dream come true is the highest happiness of a person. Therefore, the process of imagination is directly related to the meaning of people’s lives. The main thing is that the dream is aimed at transforming life in accordance with the ideals and moral values humanity.

Imagination and creativity

Imagination is a mental process that is a prerequisite and condition for such productive human activity in which a product is created, i.e. an ideal (in an image, in a text) or material (in the form of a tool, product) object that has personal or social value.

Children's drawing and a painting by an artist, a hare sculpted from plasticine or a sculpture of a hero, a children's airplane model and a jet airliner - all these are products of creativity.

Imagination occupies a central place and is the focus of creative activity. Creation- one of higher manifestations man, the actual human manifestation. After all, an animal does not create anything except the purely instinctual construction of a nest or burrow. And people, unlike animals, are capable of creation. The study of this creative process showed that it differs in such stages: 1) the emergence of an idea (the emergence of an image, a dream, a plan in the imagination); 2) concentration, accumulation of knowledge required for its implementation; 3) conscious and unconscious work of the psyche and, above all, imagination in combination with thinking to search for options for implementing the plan; 4) insight and its implementation; 5) checking what has been done.

Scientific and literary creativity, musical and artistic creativity, theatrical and cinematic creativity, the creativity of an inventor and the creativity of a teacher have their own characteristics.

But all these types of creativity have one thing in common. This is a huge tension of all forces and the emergence of a special, inherent state, which is called inspiration.

Inspiration- this is a state of the highest rise of all creative forces, in which all mental processes, driven by the imagination, are combined into one endless creative impulse, inexorably leading to the solution of a problem, to the embodiment of a plan, to the manufacture, generation of a new product, the creator of which is a person.

In the history of mankind, imagination has primarily played a culture-forming role. All world religions, the essence of which is to affirm and maintain ideal images and patterns of behavior, are based precisely on the universal acceptance of imaginary causes and principles of human existence. These imaginary models and standards served, and even now sometimes still serve, as an absolute measure of the correctness or incorrectness of human actions. The crown of culture-forming images of the imagination are religious ideas different eras. These ideas, having great motivating power, prompted many artists, who, as we know, have a very developed imagination, to create numerous artistic canvases, sculptures and other works of art; the design of temples is a special direction in architecture. Thus, imagination stimulates creativity.

Imagination endows people in whom it is developed with special traits. This is, first of all - spirituality, i.e. the ability to be distracted from the immediate, mundane and see the image of the desired future. This is then - romance, i.e. the tendency to neglect the comforts of life in order to achieve one's dreams. This - observation, i.e. the ability to perceive deeply and subtly the world in its nuances and a wide variety of manifestations, while at the same time distracting from the unimportant. And finally - creativity. Creativity– this is a person’s ability to see something new in the familiar, notice the possible in the impossible and make efforts to bring the plan to life.

CONTROL QUESTIONS

1. Define the concept of “imagination”.

2. Justify the significance of imagination for the human psyche.

3. Indicate what mental formation underlies imagination.

4. Give various bases for classifying representations, as well as specific examples.

5. Name the main types of imagination and briefly describe their specifics.

6. Analyze physiological basis imagination.

7. Explain the psychophysiological basis of ideomotor acts.

8. Give a description of the techniques of active imagination. Justify the impossibility of using them when consciousness control is weakened.

9. Argue the relationship between creativity, creativity and dreams.

10. Justify the culture-forming role of imagination.

1. Karandashev Yu.N. Development of ideas in children: Textbook. – Minsk, 1987.

2. Korshunova L.S. Imagination and its role in cognition. – M.: Pedagogy, 1979.

3. Rozet I.M. Psychology of fantasy. – Minsk: Higher School, 1977.

4. Vygotsky L. S. Imagination and its development in childhood: Collection works in 6 volumes. T. 2. – M.: Pedagogy, 1982.

5. Natadze R. G. Imagination as a factor of behavior. – Tbilisi: Metsniereta, 1982.

6. Nikiforova O.I. Research on the psychology of artistic creativity. – M.: Pedagogy, 1977.

7. General psychology / Ed. V.V. Petrovsky. = M.: Education, 1986.

8. Introduction to psychology / Under the general editorship of prof. A. V. Petrovsky. – M.: Academy, 1996.

9. Altshuler G.K. Algorithm of creativity. – M.: Knowledge, 1989.

Chapter 9. Will

General characteristics of will

Will is a mental process, the essence of which is the regulation by a person of behavior and activity related to overcoming internal and external obstacles.

Will – important component human psyche, due to the ability of people not only to respond to higher or internal stimuli, but by holding the image of a goal, controlling themselves with the help of speech, to achieve the intended result.

Of all living beings, will, like speech, like imagination, is peculiar only to man, since it is based on higher, ideal ways of reflecting the world and on controlling one’s own actions as opposed to certain stimuli. A person’s will can be so strong that it even overcomes the instinct of self-preservation.

The psychological manifestation of will is volitional effort, i.e. conditioned by the desire for a goal, the activation of all resources of the body and psyche to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that have arisen. Volitional effort is experienced as tension caused by the desire to perform the required actions.

The concept of will was introduced into the system of categories of the science of the soul by Aristotle in order to explain how a person achieves his goals, despite the fact that the knowledge of what needs to be done in itself is devoid of motivating power. The specificity of the will lies in the fact that often the volitional effort is not aimed at overcoming external obstacles, but at overcoming oneself, one’s own weakness, laziness, and fatigue. By its psychological nature, volitional effort is a voluntary action, i.e. determined by man himself. Therefore, people differentiate range of will: at one pole there are people with a strong will, at the other - weak-willed. The former are able to overcome enormous difficulties, the latter easily give in to them. In addition, there are people suffering from impaired will.

Like all mental processes, will has a complex structure, in which there are two aspects: the actual psychological and physiological.

Physiological foundations of will

Volitional behavior is based on special principles of the functioning of the brain and central nervous system person.

The main one of these principles is dominant principle. Discovered by the Russian physiologist A.A. Ukhtomsky (1875-1942), this principle of the human brain says: at any given moment in the brain there is a focus of optimal excitability, which activates the brain centers responsible for directly occurring actions, and at the same time inhibits others centers.

During volitional activity, primarily the frontal lobes are involved, as well as the parietal part of the brain, i.e. motor brain centers. Information (excitement) coming, for example, from the visual analyzer (a sudden obstacle on the way) is immediately transmitted to the motor center and causes its excitement. Neurons responsible for movement are instantly activated and cause reactions in the muscles.

However, the following principle of the human brain may come into play here: the principle of regulation of neuropsychic processes by the second signaling system, i.e. in a word, speech.

Stimuli of the second signaling system are capable of both activating and inhibiting human motor behavior. Exactly braking function the second signaling system is decisive in ensuring volitional action, because inhibits all extraneous stimulation, helping to retain the image of the desired goal in the psyche. In addition, the word, as a secondary stimulus, has powerful motivating potential. Suffice it to recall the military command “forward!”

Another important principle of the brain related to the will is the principle called "action acceptor". The principle formed by the Russian physiologist P.K. Anokhin states: on the basis of past experience, a person anticipates future influences on him and predicts the results of his actions in a changing world. It is the image of the predicted result, called the goal, that acts as a reason for action in a person. The transformation of the goal image into a voluntary action aimed at its implementation occurs in the frontal lobes of the brain thanks to verbal (secondary signal) regulation of behavior.

The fourth principle of the physiological mechanism of will is work of the reticular formation in the form of a kind filter, which selects and passes into the cerebral cortex the impulses required to carry out a given activity and delays what is not essential at the moment.

The fifth principle of the physiological mechanism of will is role of the reticular formation as peculiar battery on the energy supply of the cerebral cortex. The reticular formation is a source of neuropsychic energy, which ensures the action of the dominant - the optimal focus of excitability.

Thus, the physiological foundations of will are very complex, and their main regulatory mechanism is the second signaling system, which subordinates all the energy of the brain in the direction of the retained image of the goal. Encourages and stimulates the entire human psyche for this, relying on the indicated physiological aspects of brain activity.

Along with perception, memory and thinking, imagination plays an important role in human activity. In the process of reflecting the surrounding world, a person, along with the perception of what is acting on him at the moment, or the visual representation of what influenced him before, creates new images.

Imagination is the mental process of creating something new in the form of an image, idea or idea.

A person can mentally imagine something that he did not perceive or do in the past; he may have images of objects and phenomena that he has not encountered before. Being closely connected with thinking, imagination is characterized by greater uncertainty of the problem situation than with thinking.

The process of imagination is peculiar only to man and is a necessary condition his labor activity.

Imagination is always directed towards the practical activities of man. Before doing anything, a person imagines what needs to be done and how he will do it. Thus, he already creates in advance the image of a material thing that will be manufactured in the subsequent practical activity of man. This ability of a person to imagine in advance the final result of his work, as well as the process of creating a material thing, sharply distinguishes human activity from the “activity” of animals, sometimes very skillful.

The physiological basis of imagination is the formation of new combinations from those temporary connections that have already been formed in past experience. At the same time, simple updating of existing temporary connections does not yet lead to the creation of a new one. The creation of a new one presupposes a combination that is formed from temporary connections that have not previously entered into combination with each other. In this case, the second signal system, the word, is important. The process of imagination is a joint work of both signaling systems. All visual images are inextricably linked with him. As a rule, the word serves as a source of the appearance of images of the imagination, controls the path of their formation, and is a means of retaining, consolidating, and changing them.

Imagination is always a certain departure from reality. But in any case, the source of imagination is objective reality.

Imagination is the figurative construction of the content of a concept about an object (or the design of a scheme of actions with it) even before the concept itself is formed (and the scheme receives a clear, verifiable and implemented expression in specific material).

What is characteristic of imagination is that knowledge has not yet formed into a logical category, while a peculiar correlation of the universal and the individual at the sensory level has already been made. Thanks to this, in the very act of contemplation, a separate fact is revealed in its universal perspective, revealing its integral meaning in relation to a certain situation. Therefore, in terms of imagination, a holistic image of the situation is built before a dismembered and detailed picture of what is contemplated.

The leading mechanism of imagination is the transfer of some property of an object. The heuristic nature of transfer is measured by the extent to which it contributes to the disclosure of the specific integral nature of another object in the process of its cognition or creation by a person.

In psychology, a distinction is made between voluntary and involuntary imagination. The first manifests itself, for example, in the course of purposeful solution of scientific, technical and artistic problems in the presence of a conscious and reflected search dominant, the second - in dreams, so-called unchanging states of consciousness, etc.

A dream is a special form of imagination. It is addressed to the sphere of a more or less distant future and does not imply immediate achievement real result, as well as its complete coincidence with the desired image. At the same time, a dream can become a strong motivating factor in creative search.

Types of imagination

There are several types of imagination, among which the main ones are passive and active. Passive, in turn, is divided into voluntary (daydreaming, daydreaming) and involuntary (hypnotic state, dream fantasy). Active imagination includes artistic, creative, critical, recreative and anticipatory. Close to these types of imagination is empathy - the ability to understand another person, to be imbued with his thoughts and feelings, to sympathize, rejoice, and empathize.

Under conditions of deprivation they intensify different types imagination, therefore, apparently, it is necessary to translate their characteristics.

Active imagination is always aimed at solving creative or personal task. A person operates with fragments, units of specific information in a certain area, their movement in various combinations relative to each other. Stimulation of this process creates objective opportunities for the emergence of original new connections between the conditions recorded in the memory of a person and society. In an active imagination there is little daydreaming and “groundless” fantasy. Active imagination is directed to the future and operates with time as a well-defined category (that is, a person does not lose his sense of reality, does not place himself outside of temporary connections and circumstances). Active imagination is directed more outward, a person is mainly occupied with the environment, society, activities and less with internal subjective problems. Active imagination, finally, is awakened by a task and directed by it; it is determined by volitional efforts and is amenable to volitional control.

Recreating imagination is one of the types of active imagination, in which new images and ideas are constructed in people in accordance with externally perceived stimulation in the form of verbal messages, diagrams, conventional images, signs, etc.

Despite the fact that the products of reconstructive imagination are completely new images that have not previously been perceived by a person, this type of imagination is based on previous experience. K. D. Ushinsky viewed imagination as a new combination of past impressions and past experience, believing that the recreating imagination is a product of the influence of the material world on the human brain. Basically, the reconstructive imagination is a process during which recombination occurs, the reconstruction of previous perceptions in a new combination.

Anticipatory imagination underlies a very important and necessary human ability - to anticipate future events, foresee the results of one’s actions, etc. Etymologically, the word “anticipate” is closely related and comes from the same root with the word “see,” which shows the importance of awareness of the situation and transferring certain elements of it into the future based on knowledge or predicting the logic of the development of events.

Thus, thanks to this ability, a person can “with his mind’s eye” see what will happen to him, other people or surrounding things in the future. F. Lersch called this the Promethean (looking forward) function of the imagination, which depends on the magnitude of the life perspective: what younger man, the more and more clearly the forward orientation of his imagination is represented. In older and older people, the imagination is more focused on events of the past.

Creative imagination is a type of imagination in which a person independently creates new images and ideas that are valuable to other people or society as a whole and which are embodied (“crystallized”) into specific original products of activity. Creative imagination is a necessary component and basis of all types of human creative activity.

Images of creative imagination are created through various techniques of intellectual operations. In the structure of creative imagination, two types of such intellectual operations are distinguished. The first is the operations through which ideal images are formed, and the second is the operations on the basis of which the finished product is processed.

One of the first psychologists to study these processes, T. Ribot, identified two main operations: dissociation and association. Dissociation is a negative and preparatory operation during which sensory experience is fragmented. As a result of such preliminary processing of experience, its elements are able to enter into a new combination.

Without prior dissociation, creative imagination is unthinkable. Dissociation is the first stage of creative imagination, the stage of preparing material. The impossibility of dissociation is a significant obstacle to creative imagination.

Association is the creation of a holistic image from elements of isolated units of images. The association gives rise to new combinations, new images. In addition, there are other intellectual operations, for example, the ability to think by analogy with partial and purely accidental similarities.

Passive imagination is subject to internal, subjective factors; it is tendentious.

Passive imagination is subordinated to desires, which are thought to be realized in the process of fantasizing. In the images of passive imagination, the unsatisfied, mostly unconscious needs of the individual are “satisfied”. The images and ideas of passive imagination are aimed at strengthening and preserving positively colored emotions and at repressing and reducing negative emotions and affects.

During the processes of passive imagination, unreal, imaginary satisfaction of any need or desire occurs. In this, passive imagination differs from realistic thinking, which is aimed at real, and not imaginary, satisfaction of needs.

The materials of passive imagination, like active imagination, are images, ideas, elements of concepts and other information gleaned through experience.

Thought experiment

One of the most obvious forms of manifestation of imagination in science is a thought experiment. Aristotle turned to a thought experiment, proving the impossibility of emptiness in nature, that is, using a thought experiment to reject the existence of certain phenomena. The widespread use of thought experiments apparently begins with Galileo. In any case, E. Mach in his “Mechanics” believes that it was Galileo who was the first to give sufficient methodological indication of the thought experiment as a special cognitive education, qualifying it as an imaginary experiment.

A thought experiment cannot be reduced to operating with concepts, but is a cognitive formation that arises on the basis of imagination in the process of rational cognition.

A thought experiment is a type of cognitive activity that is built according to the type of a real experiment and adopts the structure of the latter, but develops entirely in an ideal plan. It is at this fundamental point that the activity of imagination is manifested here, which gives grounds to call this procedure an imaginary experiment.

A thought experiment is an activity carried out in an ideal way, contributing to the emergence of new heuristic possibilities in the cognitive subject both in the logical-conceptual and in the sensory-figurative reflection of reality. A thought experiment, replacing the material one in some way, serves as its continuation and development. The subject can carry out, for example, an indirect verification of the truth of knowledge, without resorting to real experimentation where this is difficult or impossible. In addition, a thought experiment allows us to explore situations that are practically unrealizable, although still possible in principle.

Since the thought experiment proceeds in an ideal way, special role The correctness of the forms of mental activity plays a role in ensuring the real significance of its results. Moreover, it is obvious that mental experimentation obeys logical laws. Violation of logic in operating images in a thought experiment leads to its destruction. In a thought experiment, activity unfolds in an ideal way, and the specific foundations of objectivity in this case are the logical correctness of operating with images, on the one hand, and the activity of the imagination, on the other. Moreover, the decisive role, as it should be in an experiment, belongs here to the “sensual” side, i.e., the imagination.

A thought experiment, therefore, differs from a real experiment, on the one hand, in its, so to speak, ideality, and on the other, in the presence in it of elements of imagination as a basis for evaluating ideal structures.

Thus, with the help of imagination, quite rigidly guided by logic, Galileo imagines a situation in which the reasons interfering with the free movement of a body are completely eliminated. Thus, he crosses the line of what is actually possible, but with all possible evidence he demonstrates the feasibility of inertial motion - the body will maintain its motion indefinitely.

The productive power of the imagination presented here a situation that was impossible from the point of view of Aristotelian physics. And Galileo was aware that Aristotelian physics was opposed to the imaginary result of a thought experiment - a body that continues to move in the absence of its driving forces is something impossible from the point of view of physics.

Thus, it is the logical opposition of competing theories that forms the context in which unacceptable (from any of the competing positions) assumptions and “crazy* hypotheses are completely acceptable. In short, imagination is acceptable in every sense of the word.

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1. Generalcharacteristicimagination

Imagination is the process of transforming ideas that reflect reality and creating new ideas on this basis.

The process of imagination always occurs in inextricable connection with two other mental processes - memory and thinking. Thanks to this, images of the imagination are created by processing individual aspects of a person’s existing images of reality.

Speaking about imagination, one cannot underestimate its role in human mental activity, because a certain processing of images of reality occurs even in the very simple version playback Thus, when imagining any object or event, we are very often unable to reproduce the corresponding facts in all detail and with all the details. However, things and events are reproduced not in the form of incoherent fragments or scattered frames, but in their integrity and continuity. Consequently, a kind of processing of the material occurs, expressed in the replenishment of ideas with the necessary details, i.e. in the process of reproduction, the activity of our imagination begins to manifest itself.

B significantly to a greater extent the activity of imagination is present in the formation of images of objects or phenomena that we have never perceived. This is how ideas about natural areas, where we have never been, or ideas about the image of a literary hero.

The activity of the imagination is most closely related to a person’s emotional experiences. Imagining what you want can evoke positive feelings in a person, and in certain situations, a dream about a happy future can bring a person out of extremely negative states, allowing him to escape from the situation of the present moment, analyze what is happening and rethink the significance of the situation for the future. Consequently, imagination plays a very significant role in regulating our behavior.

Imagination is also associated with the implementation of volitional actions. Thus, imagination is present in any type of our work activity, since before creating anything, it is necessary to have an idea of what we are creating. Moreover, the further we move away from mechanical labor and approach creative activity, the more the importance of our imagination increases.

It is generally accepted that the physiological basis of imagination is the actualization of neural connections, their disintegration, regrouping and unification into new systems. In this way, images arise that do not coincide with previous experience, but are not divorced from it. The complexity, unpredictability of imagination, its connection with emotions give reason to assume that its physiological mechanisms are associated not only with the cortex, but also with deeper structures of the brain. In particular, the hypothalamic-limbic system plays a major role here.

It should be noted that imagination, due to the characteristics of those responsible for it physiological systems to a certain extent associated with the regulation of organic processes and movement.

2. Kindsimagination

Imagination processes, like memory processes, can vary in the degree of voluntariness or intentionality. An extreme case of involuntary imagination is dreams, in which images are born unintentionally and in the most unexpected and bizarre combinations. The activity of the imagination, which unfolds in a half-asleep, drowsy state, for example, before falling asleep, is also involuntary at its core.

The voluntary imagination has much more to do with a person. higher value. This type of imagination manifests itself when a person is faced with the task of creating certain images, outlined by himself or given to him from the outside. In these cases, the process of imagination is controlled and directed by the person himself. The basis of such work of the imagination is the ability to arbitrarily evoke and change the necessary ideas.

Among the various types and forms of voluntary imagination, one can distinguish reconstructive imagination, productive (creative) imagination and dream.

Recreating imagination manifests itself when a person needs to recreate a representation of an object that matches its description as fully as possible. This type of imagination is encountered when reading descriptions of geographical places or historical events, and also when reading descriptions of literary heroes. It should be noted that the recreating imagination forms not only visual ideas, but also tactile, auditory, etc. So, reading the description Battle of Poltava, made by A.S. Pushkin, one can clearly imagine the roar of gun shots, the screams of soldiers, the beating of drums, the smell of gunpowder.

Most often, we encounter reconstructive imagination when it is necessary to recreate some idea from a verbal description. However, there are times when a person recreates an idea of an object, not using words, but on the basis of diagrams and drawings. In this case, the success of recreating an image is largely determined by a person’s abilities for spatial imagination, i.e. the ability to recreate an image in three-dimensional space. Consequently, the process of reconstructive imagination is closely related to human thinking and memory.

The next type of voluntary imagination is productive (creative) imagination. It is characterized by the fact that a person transforms ideas and creates new ones not according to an existing model, but by independently outlining the contours of the created image and choosing for it necessary materials. Productive imagination, like reconstructive imagination, is closely related to memory, since in all cases of its manifestation a person uses his previous experience. Therefore, there is no hard boundary between the reconstructive and creative imagination. With a recreating imagination, the viewer, reader or listener must, to a greater or lesser extent, complete the given image with the activity of his creative imagination.

A special form of imagination is a dream. The essence of this type of imagination is the independent creation of new images. However, a dream has a number of significant differences from productive (creative) imagination. Firstly, in a dream a person always creates an image of what he wants, whereas in creative images the desires of their creator are not always embodied. In dreams, what attracts a person and what he strives for finds its figurative expression. Secondly, a dream is a process of imagination that is not included in creative activity, i.e. does not immediately and directly provide an objective product in the form work of art, scientific discovery, technical invention, etc.

3. MechanismsprocessingsubmissionsVimaginaryimages

Images recreated in the process of imagination cannot arise out of nothing. They are formed on the basis of previous experience, on the basis of ideas about objects and phenomena of objective reality. The process of creating imaginary images from impressions received by a person from reality can occur in various forms.

The creation of imaginary images goes through two main stages. At the first stage, a kind of division of impressions or existing ideas into their component parts occurs. In other words, the first stage of the formation of imaginary images is characterized by the analysis of impressions received from reality or ideas formed as a result of previous experience. During such an analysis, the object is abstracted, i.e. it appears to be isolated from other objects, and parts of the object are also abstracted.

With these images, transformations of two main types can then be carried out. Firstly, these images can be put into new combinations and connections. Secondly, these images can be given a completely new meaning. In any case, operations are performed with abstracted images that can be characterized as synthesis. These operations, which constitute the essence of the synthesizing activity of the imagination, are the second stage in the formation of imaginative images. Moreover, the forms in which the synthesizing activity of the imagination is carried out are extremely diverse.

The simplest form of synthesis in the process of imagination is agglutination, i.e. creating a new image by attaching in the imagination parts or properties of one object to another. Examples of agglutination include: the image of a centaur, the image of a winged man in drawings North American Indians, the image of an ancient Egyptian deity (a man with a tail and an animal head), etc.

The processes underlying agglutination are very diverse. As a rule, they can be divided into two main groups: processes associated with a lack of criticality or lack of analytical perception, and arbitrary processes, i.e. controlled by consciousness, associated with mental generalizations. The image of a centaur probably appeared when, in conditions of insufficient visibility, a man galloping on a horse was perceived as some kind of unprecedented animal. At the same time, the image of a winged man most likely arose consciously, since it symbolizes the idea of fast and easy movement through the air and is concretized in a sensual image.

One of the most common ways of processing images of perception into images of imagination is to increase or decrease an object or its parts. Various literary characters have been created using this method.

Agglutination can also be carried out by incorporating already known images into a new context. In this case, new connections are established between ideas, thanks to which the entire set of images receives a new meaning. Typically, when introducing ideas into a new context, the process is preceded by a specific idea or goal. This process is completely controllable, unless it is a dream, when control of consciousness is impossible. When incorporating already known images into a new context, a person achieves correspondence between individual ideas and the holistic context. Therefore, the entire process is subordinated to certain meaningful connections from the very beginning.

4. Basiccharacteristicsrepresentation

Performance- this is the mental process of reflecting objects or phenomena that are not currently perceived, but are recreated on the basis of our previous experience. The results of the representation are secondary images, that is, “first signals” extracted from memory. Representations reproduce past primary images. These are images of objects that are given time do not affect the receptor surface of the analyzer. Representations embody one of the types of memory (figurative memory), which determines their most important significance in the structure of mental processes. Representations are a necessary link between primary-signal mental processes (images of sensations and perceptions) and secondary-signal mental and speech processes. Views allow you to see not only the “face”, but also the “back” of objects during their absence. Moreover, objects not only once directly perceived, but also belonging to a generalized class of objects synthesized in representation.

Visibility. A person represents the image of a perceived object exclusively in visual form. In this case, there is a blurring of the outlines and the disappearance of a number of features. The clarity of ideas is poorer than the clarity of perception due to the loss of the immediacy of reflection.

Fragmentation. The presentation of objects and phenomena is characterized by uneven reproduction individual parts. Advantage is given to objects (or their fragments) that in previous perceptual experience had greater attractiveness or significance. The fragmentation of representations, noted by G. Ebbinghaus and confirmed by modern researchers, is that “with a careful analysis or attempt to establish all the sides or features of an object, the image of which is given in the representation, it usually turns out that some sides, features or parts are not represented at all " If instability of representation is an analogue of incomplete constancy, then fragmentation is the equivalent of incomplete integrity or an expression of its deficiency in representation compared to perception.

Instability. The image (or its fragment) presented at a given moment in time can be held in active consciousness only for a certain time, after which it will begin to disappear, losing fragment after fragment. On the other hand, the image of representation does not arise immediately, but as new aspects and properties of the object, new temporary connections are perceived; gradually it is supplemented, changed and “clarified”. In its essence, instability as a manifestation of inconstancy is a negative equivalent or expression of the deficiency of constancy inherent in the perceptual image. It is well known to everyone from their own experience and consists in the “fluctuations” of the image and the fluidity of its components.

imagination physiological nervous representation

5. Kindssubmissions

VisualAndauditoryperformance

Currently, there are several approaches to constructing a classification of representations. Since ideas are based on past perceptual experience, the main classification of ideas is based on the classification of types of sensations and perceptions. Therefore, it is customary to distinguish the following types of representations: visual, auditory, motor (kinesthetic), tactile, olfactory, gustatory, temperature and organic.

However, this approach to classifying representations is not the only one. So, B.M. Teplov said that the classification of representations can be carried out according to the following criteria:

According to the degree of generalization; from this point of view we can talk about particular and general representations.

In addition, the classification of ideas can be carried out according to the degree of manifestation of volitional efforts.

However, the most common classification of ideas is based on sensations.

Visualrepresentation. Most of the ideas a person has are related to visual perception. A characteristic feature of visual representations is that in in some cases they can be extremely specific and convey all the visible qualities of objects: color, shape, volume. However, more often than not, one side predominates in visual representations, while the others are either very unclear or absent altogether. The nature of a person’s visual representations mainly depends on the content and the practical activity in the process of which they arise. Thus, visual representations play a central role in classes fine arts, because not only drawing from memory, but also drawing from life is impossible without well-developed visual perceptions. Visual representations also play an important role in pedagogical process. Even the study of a subject such as literature requires the inclusion of imagination in order to successfully master the material, which, in turn, relies heavily on visual representations.

In the field of auditory representations, speech and musical representations are of utmost importance. In turn, speech representations can also be divided into several subtypes: phonetic representations and timbre-intonation speech representations. Phonetic representations occur when a word is represented aurally, without imagining any specific voice. This kind of representation has enough great importance when learning foreign languages.

Timbre-intonation speech ideas take place when one imagines the timbre of the voice and characteristics the intonation of a person. This kind of performance is of great importance in the work of an actor and in school practice when teaching a child expressive reading.

MotorAndspatialperformance

By the nature of their occurrence, motor representations differ from visual and auditory ones, since they are never a simple reproduction of past sensations, but are always associated with current sensations. Every time a person imagines the movement of any part of his body, a weak contraction of the corresponding muscles occurs. Thus, with any motor idea, rudimentary movements are performed that give a person the corresponding motor sensations. But the sensations received from these rudimentary movements always form an inextricable whole with certain visual or auditory images. In this case, motor ideas can be divided into two groups: ideas about the movement of the whole body or its individual parts and speech motor ideas. The former are usually the result of the fusion of motor sensations with visual images. Speech motor representations are the fusion of speech motor sensations with auditory images of words. Consequently, motor representations are either visual-motor (representations of body movement) or auditory-motor (speech representations).

It should be noted that auditory representations are also very rarely purely auditory. In most cases, they are associated with motor sensations of the rudimentary movements of the speech apparatus. Consequently, auditory and motor speech representations are qualitatively similar processes: both are the result of the fusion of auditory images and motor sensations. However, in this case we can say that motor ideas are equally associated with both auditory images and motor sensations.

Thus, all the main types of human ideas are, to one degree or another, connected with each other, and the division into classes or types is very arbitrary. We can talk about a certain class (type) of representations in the case when visual, auditory or motor representations come to the fore.

Concluding our consideration of the classification of representations, we need to dwell on one more, very important, type of representation - spatial representations. The term "spatial representations" is applied to those cases in which the spatial form and placement of objects are clearly represented, but the objects themselves may be represented very vaguely. As a rule, these representations are so schematic and colorless that at first glance the term “visual image” does not apply to them. However, they still remain images - images of space, since they convey one side of reality - the spatial arrangement of things - with complete clarity.

Spatial representations are mainly visuomotor representations, and sometimes the visual component comes to the fore, sometimes the motor component. Chess players playing blindly operate very actively with ideas of this type. IN Everyday life a person also uses this type of representation, for example, when it is necessary to get from one point of a populated area to another. In this case, he imagines a route and moves along it.

ClassificationsubmissionsBydegreesgenerality

A person receives primary information about the world around him through sensation and perception. However, a person can, long after he has perceived an object, evoke (accidentally or intentionally) the image of this object again. This phenomenon is called "performance".

All ideas also differ in the degree of generalization. Representations are usually divided into individual and general. One of the main differences between ideas and images of perception is that images of perception are always only single, that is, they contain information only about a specific object, and ideas are very often generalized.

Unit representations are representations based on the observation of a single object.

General views- these are representations that generally reflect the properties of a number of similar objects.

All ideas differ in the degree of manifestation of volitional efforts. In this case, it is customary to distinguish between voluntary and involuntary representations. Involuntary ideas are ideas that arise spontaneously, without activating the will and memory of a person. Voluntary ideas are ideas that arise in a person as a result of volitional effort, in the interests of a set goal.

It is also necessary to distinguish between representations (their individual species) from primary memory images and persevering images.

Primary memory images are those that directly follow the perception of an object and are retained for a very short period of time, measured in seconds.

Perseverative images are those involuntary images that emerge with exceptional vividness in consciousness after a prolonged perception of homogeneous objects or after such a perception of an object that has had a strong emotional impact. For example, anyone who has picked mushrooms or taken a long walk in the forest knows that when you go to bed and close your eyes, quite a lot of things pop up in your consciousness. bright pictures forests, images of leaves, grass.

The same phenomenon is characteristic of auditory images. For example, after a person hears some melody, it “sounds in the ears” for a long time and intrusively. Most often, this is the melody that caused a strong emotional experience.

It should be noted that perseverative images are similar to sequential images in their concreteness and clarity, as well as their complete involuntariness, as if intrusiveness, and the fact that they are almost a simple copy of perception, without carrying a noticeable element of generalization. But they differ from sequential images in that they can be separated in time from perception by several hours, and sometimes even days.

IndividualpeculiaritiesrepresentationAndhisdevelopment

All people differ from each other in the role that representations of one kind or another play in their lives. For some, visual representations predominate, for others, auditory representations predominate, and for others, motor representations predominate. The existence of differences between people in the quality of ideas is reflected in the doctrine of types of ideas.

In accordance with this theory, all people can be divided depending on the prevailing type of ideas into four groups:

1) people with a predominance of visual ideas;

2) people with a predominance of auditory ideas;

3) people with a predominance of motor ideas;

4) people with mixed ideas.

TO last group belong to people who use representations of any kind to approximately the same extent.

A person with a predominance of visual type ideas, remembering a text, imagines the page of the book where this text is printed, as if reading it mentally. If he needs to remember some numbers, for example a telephone number, he imagines it written or printed.

A person with a predominance of auditory type ideas, remembering a text, seems to hear spoken words. They also remember numbers in the form of an auditory image.

A person with a predominance of motor-type ideas, remembering a text or trying to remember some numbers, pronounces them to himself. It should be noted that people with pronounced types of ideas are extremely rare.

Most people, to one degree or another, have ideas of all these types, and it can be quite difficult to determine which of them play in their minds. this person lead role. Moreover, individual differences in this case are expressed not only in the predominance of ideas of a certain type, but also in the characteristics of ideas. Thus, in some people, ideas of all types are very bright, lively and complete, while in others they are more or less pale and schematic. People who have a predominance of vivid and vivid ideas are usually classified as the so-called imaginative type. Such people are characterized not only by the great clarity of their ideas, but also by the fact that ideas play an extremely important role in their mental life. For example, when remembering any events, they mentally “see” pictures of individual episodes related to these events; when thinking or talking about something, they widely use visual images, etc.

Increasing the generalizing value of ideas can go in two directions. One way is the way of schematization. As a result of schematization, the representation gradually loses a number of private individual features and details, approaching the scheme. For example, the development of spatial geometric concepts follows this path. Another way is the way of developing typical images. In this case, ideas, without losing their individuality, on the contrary, become more and more specific and visual and reflect a whole group of objects and phenomena. This path leads to the creation artistic images, which, being as specific and individual as possible, can contain very broad generalizations.

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General characteristics of imagination and its role in mental activity. General characteristics of imagination

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