Course work: Imagination as a mental cognitive process. Recreative and creative imagination

Imagination as a mental cognitive process

DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION IN PRESCHOOL AGE

Memory development tools

In the first year, the child’s involuntary memorization occurs in joint activities with an adult through manipulation with objects.

o ensuring repeated repetition of an action in order to memorize it with a word designation;

o finger games;

o inclusion of folklore in communication with the child;

o in middle and senior preschool age, reliance is placed on a picture that reflects the main content of the text. In this way, verbal memory develops in unity with figurative and motor memory.

o observations, because memory depends on the completeness of perception and active analysis of the object is necessary;

o daily routine;

o eliminating unnecessary emotional overload;

o the development of voluntary memory occurs when an adult encourages a child to consciously reproduce his experience in play and productive activity;

o semantic correlation - establishing associations between the word and the object depicted in the picture (support for memorization);

o the adult’s demand to remember must be caused by the needs of the activity in which the child is involved;

o teaching a 5-6 year old child logical memorization techniques;

o didactic games.

1. Imagination as a mental cognitive process

2. The emergence and development of imagination

3. General characteristics of children's imagination

4. Means of developing imagination

Imagination– this is a mental cognitive process of creating new images by processing and recombining existing experience; reflection of reality in new, unexpected combinations and connections.

Imagination is inherent only to man.

Types of imagination:

1. Depending on the degree of activity

Active

Passive

2. Depending on the originality and independence of the images

Creative

Recreating

3. From having a consciously set goal to create an image

Deliberate

Unintentional

This is a socially determined process that depends on the adult and on communication with him. In infancy and early age, there is an accumulation of sensory, life experiences, impressions, which will then become material for creating images of the imagination.

O.M.Dchenko highlights three main stages of imagination development

Stage 1 2.5-3 years – period of substantive activity	By mastering actions with objects, the child masters object substitutions. Based on his experience, he can complete vague images (for example, a square in a house, a booth, etc.). The image of the imagination appears in the process of drawing. The child cannot say in advance what he will draw.
2nd stage 4-5 years – period of role-playing, drawing, designing	Imaginary objects are supplemented with various details: - the ability to plan the upcoming action develops: “I will draw a house”; - then this house is supplemented with details (pipe, windows, flowers, etc.); - along with combining memory representations, the child modifies objects: “I will build a tower to heaven”; - speech development leads the child to verbal creativity, composing fairy tales and poems.
Stage 3 6-7 years – development of volition	A child can deviate from the learned standards and combine them in different ways. A holistic image of the imagination can be built in a variety of ways, often on the basis of holistic planning. The implementation of the plan is going according to plan.

In the 2nd year of life, the main means of stimulating the imagination is 1) involving the child in imaginary situations, fun, practical jokes (rolled on the knees, “dropped” - “Into the hole - bang!”);

2) the use of folklore, toys (the bunny sits and watches the children eat);

3) learning to use substitute objects, constructing an imaginary situation (in the 3rd year);

4) playing around with buildings;

5) creation of a subject-development environment, which includes, along with familiar objects, non-specific objects (waste and natural material);

6) enriching the child’s own experience;

7) training in ways and means of transforming impressions; formation of critical thinking (does this happen or not?; identification of contradictions);

8) creation of problem situations that do not have a clear solution.

This paragraph is devoted to a theoretical overview of the object of study. The problem of imagination development is one of the least clearly defined and developed in pedagogy and psychology, and therefore we are faced with the task of characterizing creative imagination as a mental process. Interest in the problem of imagination as a mental process arose relatively recently - at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The first attempts to experimentally study the function of imagination date back to this time (S.D. Vladychko, V. Wundt, F. Matveeva, E. Meiman, A.L. Mishchenko, T. Ribot). Gradually, aspects of the study of this problem are increasingly expanding, methods are being developed that make it possible to experimentally study the function of imagination, attempts are being made to theoretically comprehend the data obtained, and issues of the relationship of imagination with other cognitive processes are being considered. Work in this area was carried out mainly in two directions: on the one hand, the development of imagination in ontogenesis was studied (I. G. Batoev, L. S. Vygotsky, A. Ya. Dudetsky, O. M. Dyachenko, G. D. Kirillova, A.V. Petrovsky, D.B. Elkonin, etc.), on the other hand, the functional development of this process (E.I. Ignatiev, E.V. Ilyenkov, etc.).

Of particular relevance are studies on the study of the “nature” of creativity (A.V. Brushlinsky, A.M. Matyushkin, A.Ya. Ponomarev, V.N. Pushkin), the development of principles and methods for creating diagnostic methods of differential psychology for the purpose of early detection and development of creative abilities in children (D. B. Bogoyavlensky, A. V. Zaporozhets, V. A. Krutetsky, A. V. Petrovsky, B. M. Teplov,).

Thus, in psychology there is an increasing interest in the problems of creativity, and through it in imagination, as the most important component of any form of creative activity.

Imagination in psychology is considered as one of the forms of reflective activity of consciousness. Since all cognitive processes are reflective in nature, it is necessary, first of all, to determine the qualitative originality and specificity inherent in the imagination. According to domestic psychologists, imagination reflects reality not as an existing reality, but as a possibility, a probability. With the help of imagination, a person strives to go beyond the boundaries of existing experience and a given moment in time, i.e. he orients himself in a probabilistic, conjectural environment. This allows you to find not one, but many options for solving any situation, which becomes possible through repeated restructuring of existing experience.

Thus, imagination- this is a mental cognitive process in which the reflection of reality occurs in a special form - objectively or subjectively new (in the form of images, ideas or ideas), created on the basis of images of perceptions, memory, as well as knowledge acquired in the process of verbal communication.

All types and levels of personality orientation are manifested in the imagination; they also give rise to different levels of imagination. The difference between these levels is determined primarily by how conscious and active a person’s attitude towards this process is. At lower levels, the change of images occurs spontaneously, involuntarily; at higher levels, a person’s conscious, active attitude to the formation of images plays an increasingly important role.

Psychologists call this imagination passive. It can be intentional: a person can evoke fantasy images intentionally - daydreaming. Dreams are dreams that are not associated with the will aimed at fulfilling them. In dreams, the connection between fantasy products and needs is easily revealed. All people tend to dream about something pleasant, but if in the process of imagination a person’s dreams predominate, then this is a defect in personality development. Passive imagination can also arise unintentionally. This occurs mainly when the controlling function of consciousness is weakened, during temporary inactivity of a person, in a half-asleep state, in a state of passion, in sleep (dreams), in pathological disorders of consciousness (hallucinations), etc. Active Imagination can be divided into creative and recreative. Imagination, which is based on the creation of images that correspond to the description, is called recreating. In other words, this type of imagination is called reproductive, reproducing, remembering. Some people have the ability to easily recreate images in their memory. Having once seen an object, they can then imagine it in all its details, with all the colors and even smells. It is necessary when reading both educational and fiction literature, when studying geographical maps and historical descriptions, because there is a reconstruction using the imagination of what is depicted in these books and maps. The essence of the recreating imagination is that we reproduce what we ourselves do not directly perceive, but what other people tell us (by speech, drawings, diagrams).

Creative imagination, in contrast to recreating imagination, involves the independent creation of new images that are realized in original and valuable products of activity. It is this type of imagination that will be the subject of our study and its further development in children. The value of the human personality largely depends on what types of imagination predominate in its structure. If creative imagination, realized in specific activities, prevails over passive, empty daydreaming, then this indicates a high level of personal development.

A special kind of imagination - dream. A dream is always aimed at the future, at the prospects for the life and activities of a particular person. A dream allows you to outline the future and organize your behavior to realize it. A dream is always an impetus for action. K.G. Paustovsky said that the essence of a person is the dream that lives in everyone’s heart 42. Images of this kind, like a dream, include a person’s ideals that serve him as images of life, behavior, relationships, and activities.

Another type of creative imagination is fantasy or daydreaming. Fantasy images include fairy-tale-fantasy and science-fiction images. Fantasy presents objects and phenomena that do not exist in nature. Both fairy tales and science fiction are the result of creative imagination, but the authors do not see ways to achieve what their imagination depicts. It should be noted that there is also no sharp boundary between fantastic and real solutions. For example, what was considered fantasy in the time of Jules Verne is now everyday reality. G.A. Altshtuller calculated that out of 108 ideas - forecasts of J. Verne, 99 (90%) were implemented. Herbert Wells from 86 - 77, Alexander Belyaev from 50 - 47 51. Every object, no matter how everyday and distant it may seem, is to one degree or another the result of imagination. Depending on the nature of the images with which the imagination operates, they are sometimes distinguished specific And abstract imagination.

So, imagination is the psychological basis of creativity, a universal human ability to construct new images by transforming practical, sensory, intellectual, emotional and semantic experience 39.

When a child selflessly tells fables with his own participation, he is not lying; in our usual understanding, he is composing. It’s not important whether it’s real or not, what’s important is that the child’s brain works and generates ideas. However, you should still pay attention to what the child dreams of. If he talks all the time about his non-existent friends, then maybe he suffers, dreams about it and thus pours out his soul? In this case, immediate help is needed!

Having established the function that imagination performs in human activity, it is necessary to further consider the processes by which the construction of fantasy images is carried out and to clarify their structure. Imagination processes are analytical-synthetic in nature. The main tendency of the imagination is the transformation of ideas (images), which ultimately ensures the creation of a model of a situation that is obviously new and has not previously arisen. When analyzing the mechanism of imagination, it is necessary to emphasize that its essence is the process of transforming ideas, creating new images based on existing ones.

Imagination as a mental process has its own “technologies”. For example, according to D. Guilford, imagination is associated with such a property of the psyche as imaginative adaptive flexibility - the ability to change, transform the shape of an object in order to obtain a new structure 4. This ability for transformation is carried out on the basis of various techniques and methods of imagination:

1. Agglucination(paradoxical combination) - connection, “gluing” of elements of various images and phenomena. The results of this technique are fantastic, mythological, fairy-tale images (Centaur, mermaid, phoenix bird, etc.).

2. Symbolization, according to S. Freud’s definition, is the process of “transforming thoughts into images.” Symbolization is a key term for understanding artistic creativity. Art is symbolic. It tells its secrets through symbols. The language of symbols is mysterious, polysemantic, inaccessible to a single formulation, inexhaustible in content.

3. Hyperbolization- paradoxical strengthening, increase or decrease of an object or its individual parts. As well as a change in the number of parts of an object or their displacement (multi-armed gods, the seven-headed Serpent-Gorynych).

4. Emphasis - sharpening, emphasizing any features of an object. The result of this technique can be both minimal changes in the content of the image and its complete transformation.

5. Schematization - highlighting the main similarities of individual phenomena. For example, the artist’s creation of an ornament whose elements are taken from the plant world.

6. Spiritualization, “revival” of images and natural phenomena.

7. Inversion - transformation into the opposite (Frog Princess, Nutcracker).

8. Combination - thickening (concentration) of images to the point of contamination (overlay). There is a similar term in literary criticism - “collective image”. As a result of condensation, several distant images appear as a single whole.

Vygotsky L.S. the psychological mechanism of creative imagination is described in detail. This mechanism includes the selection of individual elements of an object, their change, the combination of elements into new integral images, the systematization of these images and their “crystallization” in the object embodiment. The well-known “pangs of creativity” are precisely related to the desire of imaginary images to be realized. “This is the true basis and driving principle of creativity,” writes L.S. Vygotsky10.

L. S. Vygotsky, whose works laid the foundation for school psychology, formulated three laws for the development of creative imagination.

1. Creative imagination is directly dependent on the richness and diversity of a person’s previous personal experience 10. Imagination is built from real elements; the richer the experience, the richer the imagination. This is the basic law of imagination, the exponents of which were W. Wundt and T. Ribot, who said that the imagination is capable of creating numerous new combinations from previous elements. This is why a child’s imagination is poorer than that of an adult; this is explained by the poverty of his experience. “After the moment of accumulation of experience,” says Ribot, “a period of maturation or incubation begins.” 47. The combining activity of the brain is based on memory, relies on it and arranges everything into new and new combinations. Hence the corollary: it is necessary to help the child accumulate experience, images and knowledge (erudition).

2. You can imagine something that you haven’t seen yourself, but have heard or read about 10.

That is, you can fantasize based on someone else's experience. For example, you can imagine an earthquake or a tsunami, although you have never seen it. Without training it is difficult, but possible. Here the imagination does not reproduce what was perceived in previous experience, but creates new combinations based on experience. Here, too, one can trace the dependence of the imagination on previous experience (the presence of ideas about waterlessness, sandiness, vast expanses, animals inhabiting the desert). This form of connection is only made possible through someone else's or social experience. This form is the most important for the teacher. In this sense, imagination acquires an important function - it becomes a means of expanding human experience, because he can imagine what he has not seen. The result is a dual and mutual dependence of imagination and experience. If in the first case imagination is based on experience, then in the second case experience itself is based on imagination.

3. The content of imaginary objects or phenomena depends on our feelings at the moment of fantasy. And vice versa, the object of fantasy affects our feelings 10. You can “fantasize” your future in such a way that it will be a guide for your whole life, or you can fantasize horrors and be afraid to enter a dark room. Feelings, like thoughts, drive creativity. Every feeling and emotion strives to be embodied in certain images that correspond to this feeling. Emotion has, as it were, the ability to select impressions, thoughts and images that are consonant with the mood that possesses us at the moment. In grief and joy, we see everything with different eyes. In turn, fantasy images serve as an internal expression of our feelings (black is mourning, red is rebellion, white is triumph). Psychologists call this influence of the emotional factor on combining fantasy the law of the general emotional sign. Its essence boils down to the fact that impressions or images that have a common emotional sign tend to unite with each other, despite the fact that no connection exists either in similarity or contiguity between these images. The result is a combined imagination, which is based on a common feeling that unites heterogeneous elements. According to Z. Freud, two principles regulate the mental activity of a child: the pleasure principle and the reality principle. The child first strives to receive pleasure, a positive emotion, and then begins to act 11. However, there is a feedback connection between imagination and emotion. The essence of this law is formulated by T. Ribot as follows: “All forms of creative imagination contain affective elements.” 47 This means that any construction of fantasy has a negative impact on our feelings, and if this construction does not exist on its own in reality, then the caused to them the feeling is really effective, really experienced by a person. Therefore, it is necessary to evoke emotion by conveying some idea to the student. When we have before us the full circle described by the imagination, both factors - intellectual and emotional - are equally necessary for the act of creativity.

Artistic imagination has the following characteristics:

1. The effect of novelty, uniqueness of images. Productive character, as opposed to the recreative, reproductive imagination. Creation of a new artistic reality.

2. Brightness of images. Even the most fantastic “unreal” images acquire “authenticity”, “reality” in artistic creativity.

L.N. Tolstoy noted this ability in himself. He admitted that he sometimes confused events, facts, and faces he saw with those created by his imagination. Many writers and artists noted the “independence” of the created images, which suddenly “began to live their own lives,” regardless of the will of the artist. Sometimes the logic of their actions completely contradicted the plan 9.

3. The emotionality of the imagination process and its result.

4. Connection with the material of art, with the system of artistic language. The image of the imagination “demands” its embodiment, sometimes “dictates” the material and means.

5. A specific and generalized feature of artistic imagination is that images, situations, states, ideas that are transformed and created by the imagination are always spiritualized. The artistic imagination operates with spiritual contents.

As can be seen from the above, imagination is an extremely complex process in its composition. At the very beginning of the process there are always external and internal perceptions, which form the basis of our experience. What the child sees and hears are thus the first reference points for his future creativity. He accumulates material from which his fantasy will subsequently be built. What follows is a complex process of processing this material: dissociation and association of perceived impressions 10. Every impression is a complex whole, consisting of many individual parts.

Dissociation lies in the fact that this complex whole is, as it were, dissected into parts: some are preserved, others are forgotten 47. The process of dissociation is followed by a process of change to which the dissociated elements undergo. This process of change is based on the dynamism of internal nervous excitations and the images corresponding to them. Traces from external impressions are processes that move and change, live, die, and in this movement lies the key to their change under the influence of internal factors that distort and process them. An example of such an internal change is the process of exaggeration or understatement of individual elements of impressions.

The next point in the composition of the imagination processes is association, those. the unification of dissociated and changed elements 47. And the last moment of the preliminary work of the imagination is the combination of individual images, bringing them into a system, constructing a complex picture. The activity of the creative imagination does not end there. As noted above, the full circle of this activity will be completed when the imagination is embodied in external images.

From all of the above, we can conclude that imagination plays a big role in human life. It performs a number of specific functions.

First one of them is to represent reality in images and be able to use them when solving problems. This function of imagination is connected with thinking and is organically included in it.

Second the function of imagination is to regulate emotional states. With the help of his imagination, a person is able to at least partially satisfy many needs and relieve the tension generated by them. This vital function is especially emphasized and developed in psychoanalysis.

Third the function of imagination is associated with its participation in the voluntary regulation of cognitive processes and human states, in particular attention, memory, speech, emotions. With the help of skillfully evoked images, a person can pay attention to the necessary events. Through images, he gains the opportunity to control perceptions, memories, and statements.

Fourth the function of imagination is to form an internal plan of action - the ability to carry them out together, manipulating images.

Finally, fifth function is planning and programming activities, drawing up such programs, assessing their correctness, and the implementation process 28.

The history of scientific discoveries has many examples when imagination was one of the most important elements of scientific activity. Imagination plays an important role in the early stages of studying a scientific problem and often leads to remarkable insights. However, when the law is established and verified by practice, connected with previously discovered provisions, knowledge moves entirely to the level of theory, strictly scientific thinking.

Currently, one of the most promising areas of modern psychology is the psychology of scientific creativity. Many studies are devoted to elucidating the role of imagination in the processes of scientific and technical creativity. The role of fantasy in the practical production activities of people is great, but not always noticeable. In any, even the most ordinary object, you can see the objectified, embodied dream of many generations of people who feel the need for precisely such dreams. The longer the history of a thing, the more it has changed, the greater the number of human dreams captured in it.

Thus, having considered the imagination and its role in human mental activity, it should be noted that a person is not born with a developed imagination. The development of imagination occurs during human ontogenesis and requires the accumulation of a certain stock of ideas, which can later serve as material for creating images of the imagination. Imagination develops in close connection with the development of the entire personality, in the process of training and education, as well as in unity with thinking, memory, will and feelings.

The problem of imagination development is one of the least clearly defined and developed in pedagogy and psychology, and therefore we are faced with the task of characterizing creative imagination as a mental process. Interest in the problem of imagination as a mental process arose relatively recently - at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The first attempts to experimentally study the function of imagination date back to this time (S.D. Vladychko, V. Wundt, F. Matveeva, E. Meiman, A.L. Mishchenko, T. Ribot). Gradually, aspects of the study of this problem are increasingly expanding, methods are being developed that make it possible to experimentally study the function of imagination, attempts are being made to theoretically comprehend the data obtained, and issues of the relationship of imagination with other cognitive processes are being considered. Work in this area was carried out mainly in two directions: on the one hand, the development of imagination in ontogenesis was studied (I.G. Batoev, L.S. Vygotsky, A.Ya. Dudetsky, O.M. Dyachenko, G.D. Kirillova, A.V. Petrovsky, D.B. Elkonin, etc.), on the other hand, the functional development of this process (E.I. Ignatiev, E.V. Ilyenkov, etc.).

Thus, in psychology there is an increasing interest in the problems of creativity, and through it in imagination, as the most important component of any form of creative activity.

Thus, imagination is a mental cognitive process in which reality is reflected in a special form - objectively or subjectively new (in the form of images, ideas or ideas), created on the basis of images of perceptions, memory, as well as knowledge acquired in the process of verbal communication .

Psychologists call this imagination passive. It can be intentional: a person can evoke fantasy images intentionally - daydreaming. Dreams are dreams that are not associated with the will aimed at fulfilling them. In dreams, the connection between fantasy products and needs is easily revealed. All people tend to dream about something pleasant, but if in the process of imagination a person’s dreams predominate, then this is a defect in personality development. Passive imagination can also occur unintentionally. This occurs mainly when the controlling function of consciousness is weakened, during temporary inactivity of a person, in a half-asleep state, in a state of passion, in sleep (dreams), in pathological disorders of consciousness (hallucinations), etc. Active imagination can be divided into creative and reconstructive. Imagination, which is based on the creation of images that correspond to the description, is called recreating. In other words, this type of imagination is called reproductive, reproducing, remembering. Some people have the ability to easily recreate images in their memory. Having once seen an object, they can then imagine it in all its details, with all the colors and even smells. It is necessary when reading both educational and fiction literature, when studying geographical maps and historical descriptions, because there is a reconstruction using the imagination of what is depicted in these books and maps. The essence of the recreating imagination is that we reproduce what we ourselves do not directly perceive, but what other people tell us (by speech, drawings, diagrams).

Creative imagination, in contrast to reconstructive imagination, involves the independent creation of new images that are realized in original and valuable products of activity. It is this type of imagination that will be the subject of study and its further development in children. The value of the human personality largely depends on what types of imagination predominate in its structure. If creative imagination, realized in specific activities, prevails over passive, empty daydreaming, then this indicates a high level of personal development.

A special type of imagination is a dream. A dream allows you to outline the future and organize your behavior to realize it. A dream is always an impetus for action.

Another type of creative imagination is fantasy. Fantasy images include fairy-tale-fantasy and science-fiction images. Fantasy presents objects and phenomena that do not exist in nature. Both fairy tales and science fiction are the result of creative imagination, but the authors do not see ways to achieve what their imagination depicts. It should be noted that there is also no sharp boundary between fantastic and real solutions. Every object, no matter how everyday and distant it may seem, is to one degree or another the result of imagination. Depending on the nature of the images with which the imagination operates, a distinction is sometimes made between concrete and abstract imagination.

So, imagination is the psychological basis of creativity, a universal human ability to construct new images by transforming practical, sensory, intellectual, emotional and semantic experience.

When a child selflessly tells fables with his own participation, he is not lying; in the usual sense, he is making things up. It’s not important whether it’s real or not, what’s important is that the child’s brain works and generates ideas. However, you should still pay attention to what the child dreams of. If he talks all the time about his non-existent friends, then maybe he suffers, dreams about it and thus pours out his soul? In this case, immediate help is needed.

Imagination as a mental process has its own “technologies”. For example, according to D. Guilford, imagination is associated with such a property of the psyche as figurative adaptive flexibility - the ability to change, transform the shape of an object in order to obtain a new structure. This ability to transform is carried out on the basis of various techniques and methods of imagination:

1. Agglucination (paradoxical combination) - connection, “gluing” of elements of various images and phenomena. The results of this technique are fantastic, mythological, fairy-tale images (Centaur, mermaid, phoenix bird, etc.).
2. Symbolization, according to Freud, is the process of “transforming thoughts into images.” Symbolization is a key term for understanding artistic creativity. Art is symbolic. It tells its secrets through symbols. The language of symbols is mysterious, polysemantic, inaccessible to a single formulation, inexhaustible in content.
3. Hyperbolization - paradoxical strengthening, increasing or decreasing an object or its individual parts. As well as a change in the number of parts of an object or their displacement (multi-armed gods, the seven-headed Serpent-Gorynych).
4. Emphasis - sharpening, emphasizing any features of an object. The result of this technique can be both minimal changes in the content of the image and its complete transformation.
5. Schematization - highlighting the main similarities of individual phenomena. For example, the artist’s creation of an ornament whose elements are taken from the plant world.
6. Spiritualization, “revival” of images and natural phenomena.
7. Inversion - transformation into the opposite (Frog Princess, Nutcracker).
8. Combination - thickening (concentration) of images to the point of contamination (overlay). There is a similar term in literary criticism - “collective image”. As a result of condensation, several distant images appear as a single whole.

L.S. Vygotsky, whose works laid the foundation for school psychology, formulated three laws for the development of creative imagination.

1. Creative imagination is directly dependent on the richness and diversity of a person’s previous personal experience. Imagination is built from real elements; the richer the experience, the richer the imagination. This is why a child’s imagination is poorer than that of an adult; this is explained by the poverty of his experience.
2. You can imagine something that you haven’t seen yourself, but have heard or read about. That is, you can fantasize based on someone else's experience. For example, you can imagine an earthquake or a tsunami, although you have never seen it. Without training it is difficult, but possible. Here the imagination does not reproduce what was perceived in previous experience, but creates new combinations based on experience. Here, too, one can trace the dependence of the imagination on previous experience (the presence of ideas about waterlessness, sandiness, vast expanses, animals inhabiting the desert). This form of connection is only made possible through someone else's or social experience. This form is the most important for the teacher. In this sense, imagination acquires an important function - it becomes a means of expanding human experience, because he can imagine what he has not seen. The result is a dual and mutual dependence of imagination and experience. If in the first case imagination is based on experience, then in the second case experience itself is based on imagination.
3. The content of imaginary objects or phenomena depends on our feelings at the moment of fantasy. Conversely, the subject of fantasy affects our feelings. You can “fantasize” your future in such a way that it will be a guide for your whole life, or you can imagine horrors and be afraid to enter a dark room. Feelings, like thoughts, drive creativity. Every feeling and emotion strives to be embodied in certain images that correspond to this feeling. Emotion has, as it were, the ability to select impressions, thoughts and images that are consonant with the mood that possesses us at the moment. In grief and joy, we see everything with different eyes. In turn, fantasy images serve as an internal expression of our feelings (black is mourning, red is rebellion, white is triumph). Psychologists call this influence of the emotional factor on combining fantasy the law of the general emotional sign.

Artistic imagination has the following characteristics:

1. The effect of novelty, uniqueness of images. Productive character, as opposed to the regenerative, reproductive imagination. Creation of a new artistic reality.
2. Brightness of images. Even the most fantastic “unreal” images acquire “authenticity”, “reality” in artistic creativity.
3. The emotionality of the imagination process and its result.
4. Connection with the material of art, with the system of artistic language. The image of the imagination “demands” its embodiment, sometimes “dictates” the material and means.
5. A specific and generalized feature of artistic imagination is that images, situations, states, ideas that are transformed and created by the imagination are always spiritualized. The artistic imagination operates with spiritual contents.
6. The content of artistic imagination becomes not only personal experience or a situational creative task and the images given in it, but also images that are hidden in the depths of the unconscious.

As can be seen from the above, imagination is an extremely complex process in its composition. At the very beginning of the process there are always external and internal perceptions, which form the basis of our experience. What the child sees and hears are thus the first reference points for his future creativity. He accumulates material from which his fantasy will subsequently be built. What follows is a complex process of processing this material: dissociation and association of perceived impressions. Every impression is a complex whole, consisting of many individual parts.

Dissociation lies in the fact that this complex whole is, as it were, dissected into parts: some are preserved, others are forgotten. The process of dissociation is followed by a process of change to which the dissociated elements undergo. This process of change is based on the dynamism of internal nervous excitations and the images corresponding to them. Traces from external impressions are processes that move and change, live, die, and in this movement lies the key to their change under the influence of internal factors that distort and process them. An example of such an internal change is the process of exaggeration or understatement of individual elements of impressions.

The next moment in the composition of the imagination processes is association, i.e. unification of dissociated and altered elements. And the last moment of the preliminary work of the imagination is the combination of individual images, bringing them into a system, building a complex picture. The activity of the creative imagination does not end there. As already noted, the full circle of this activity will be completed when the imagination is embodied in external images.

From all that has been said, we can conclude that imagination plays a big role in human life. It performs a number of specific functions.

The first of them is to represent reality in images and be able to use them when solving problems. This function of imagination is connected with thinking and is organically included in it.

The second function of imagination is to regulate emotional states. With the help of his imagination, a person is able to at least partially satisfy many needs and relieve the tension generated by them. This vital function is especially emphasized and developed in psychoanalysis.

The third function of imagination is associated with its participation in the voluntary regulation of cognitive processes and human states, in particular attention, memory, speech, and emotions. With the help of skillfully evoked images, a person can pay attention to the necessary events. Through images, he gains the opportunity to control perceptions, memories, and statements.

The fourth function of imagination is the formation of an internal plan of action - the ability to carry them out together, manipulating images.

The fifth function is planning and programming activities, drawing up such programs, assessing their correctness and the implementation process.

Having considered the imagination and its role in human mental activity, it should be noted that a person is not born with a developed imagination. The development of imagination occurs during human ontogenesis and requires the accumulation of a certain stock of ideas, which can later serve as material for creating images of the imagination. Imagination develops in close connection with the development of the entire personality, in the process of training and education, as well as in unity with thinking, memory, will and feelings.

The images with which a person operates include not only previously perceived objects and phenomena. The content of the images can also be something that he has never perceived directly: pictures of the distant past or future; places where he has never been and never will be; creatures that do not exist, not only on Earth, but in the Universe in general. Images allow a person to go beyond the real world in time and space. It is these images, transforming and modifying human experience, that are the main characteristic of the imagination.

Usually what is meant by imagination or fantasy is not exactly what is meant by these words in science. In everyday life, imagination or fantasy is called everything that is unreal, does not correspond to reality, and thus has no practical significance. In fact, imagination, as the basis of all creative activity, manifests itself equally in all aspects of cultural life, making artistic, scientific and technical creativity possible.

Through sensations, perception and thinking, a person reflects the real properties of objects in the surrounding reality and acts in accordance with them in a specific situation. Through memory he uses his past experiences. But human behavior can be determined not only by current or past properties of the situation, but also by those that may be inherent in it in the future. Thanks to this ability, images of objects appear in the human consciousness that do not currently exist, but can later be embodied in specific objects. The ability to reflect the future and act as expected, i.e. imaginary, situation typical only for humans.

Imagination- the cognitive process of reflecting the future by creating new images based on processing images of perception, thinking and ideas obtained in previous experience.

Through the imagination, images are created that have never generally been accepted by a person in reality. The essence of imagination is to transform the world. This determines the most important role of imagination in the development of man as an active subject.

Imagination and thinking are processes that are similar in their structure and functions. L. S. Vygotsky called them “extremely related,” noting the commonality of their origin and structure as psychological systems. He considered imagination as a necessary, integral moment of thinking, especially creative thinking, since thinking always includes the processes of forecasting and anticipation. In problematic situations, a person uses thinking and imagination. The idea of a possible solution formed in the imagination strengthens the motivation of the search and determines its direction. The more uncertain the problem situation is, the more unknown there is in it, the more significant the role of imagination becomes. It can be carried out with incomplete initial data, since it supplements them with products of one’s own creativity.

A deep relationship also exists between imagination and emotional-volitional processes. One of its manifestations is that when an imaginary image appears in a person’s mind, he experiences true, real, and not imaginary emotions, which allows him to avoid unwanted influences and bring the desired images to life. L. S. Vygotsky called this the law of “emotional reality of imagination”

For example, a person needs to cross a stormy river by boat. Imagining that the boat might capsize, he experiences not imaginary, but real fear. This encourages him to choose a safer crossing method.

Imagination can influence the strength of emotions and feelings experienced by a person. For example, people often experience feelings of anxiety, worry about only imaginary, rather than real events. Changing the way you imagine can reduce anxiety and relieve tension. Imagining the experiences of another person helps to form and demonstrate feelings of empathy and compassion towards him. In volitional actions, imagining the final result of an activity encourages its implementation. The brighter the image of the imagination, the greater the motivating force, but the realism of the image also matters.

Imagination is a significant factor influencing personality development. Ideals, as an imaginary image that a person wants to imitate or strives for, serve as models for organizing his life, personal and moral development.

Types of imagination

There are different types of imagination. By degree of activity imagination can be passive or active. Passive imagination does not stimulate a person to take active action. He is satisfied with the created images and does not strive to realize them in reality or draws images that, in principle, cannot be realized. In life, such people are called utopians, fruitless dreamers. N.V. Gogol, having created the image of Manilov, made his name a household name for this type of people. Active Imagination is the creation of images, which are subsequently realized in practical actions and products of activity. Sometimes this requires a lot of effort and a significant investment of time from a person. Active imagination increases the creative content and efficiency of other activities.

Productive

Productive is called imagination, in the images of which there are many new things (elements of fantasy). The products of such imagination are usually similar to nothing or very little similar to what is already known.

Reproductive

Reproductive is an imagination, the products of which contain a lot of what is already known, although there are also individual elements of the new. This, for example, is the imagination of a novice poet, writer, engineer, artist, who initially create their creations according to known models, thereby learning professional skills.

Hallucinations

Hallucinations are products of imagination generated by an altered (not normal) state of human consciousness. These conditions can arise for various reasons: illness, hypnosis, exposure to psychotropic substances such as drugs, alcohol, etc.

Dreams

Dreams are products of imagination aimed at a desired future. Dreams contain more or less real and, in principle, feasible plans for a person. Dreams as a form of imagination are especially characteristic of young people who still have most of their lives ahead of them.

Dreams

Dreams are unique dreams that, as a rule, are divorced from reality and, in principle, are not feasible. Dreams occupy an intermediate position between dreams and hallucinations, but their difference from hallucinations is that dreams are products of the activity of a normal person.

Dreams

Dreams have always been and still are of particular interest. Currently, they are inclined to believe that dreams can reflect the processes of information processing by the human brain, and the content of dreams is not only functionally related to these processes, but may include new valuable ideas and even discoveries.

Voluntary and involuntary imagination

Imagination is connected in various ways with the will of a person, on the basis of which voluntary and involuntary imagination are distinguished. If images are created when the activity of consciousness is weakened, imagination is called involuntary. It occurs in a half-asleep state or during sleep, as well as in certain disorders of consciousness. free imagination is a conscious, directed activity, performing which a person is aware of its goals and motives. It is characterized by the deliberate creation of images. Active and free imagination can be combined in various ways. An example of voluntary passive imagination is daydreaming, when a person deliberately indulges in thoughts that are unlikely to ever come true. Voluntary active imagination manifests itself in a long, purposeful search for the desired image, which is typical, in particular, for the activities of writers, inventors, and artists.

Recreative and creative imagination

In connection with past experience, two types of imagination are distinguished: recreative and creative. Recreating Imagination is the creation of images of objects that were not previously perceived in a complete form by a person, although he is familiar with similar objects or their individual elements. Images are formed according to a verbal description, a schematic image - a drawing, a picture, a geographical map. In this case, the knowledge available regarding these objects is used, which determines the predominantly reproductive nature of the created images. At the same time, they differ from memory representations in the greater variety, flexibility and dynamism of image elements. Creative imagination is the independent creation of new images that are embodied in original products of various types of activities with minimal indirect reliance on past experience.

Realistic imagination

Drawing various images in their imagination, people always evaluate the possibility of their implementation in reality. Realistic imagination takes place if a person believes in the reality and possibility of realizing the created images. If he does not see such a possibility, a fantastic imagination takes place. There is no hard line between realistic and fantastic imagination. There are many cases where an image born of a person’s fantasy as completely unrealistic (for example, the hyperboloid invented by A. N. Tolstoy) later became a reality. Fantastic imagination is present in children's role-playing games. It formed the basis of literary works of a certain genre - fairy tales, science fiction, “fantasy”.

With all the variety of types of imagination, they are characterized by a common function, which determines their main significance in human life - anticipation of the future, the ideal representation of the outcome of an activity before it is achieved. Other functions of the imagination are also associated with it - stimulating and planning. The images created in the imagination encourage and stimulate a person to realize them in specific actions. The transformative influence of imagination extends not only to a person’s future activity, but also to his past experience. Imagination promotes selectivity in its structuring and reproduction in accordance with the goals of the present and future. The creation of imaginative images is carried out through complex processes of processing actually perceived information and memory representations. Just as is the case in thinking, the main processes or operations of the imagination are analysis and synthesis. Through analysis, objects or ideas about them are divided into their component parts, and through synthesis, a holistic image of the object is rebuilt. But unlike thinking in the imagination, a person more freely handles the elements of objects, recreating new holistic images.

This is achieved through a set of processes specific to the imagination. The main ones are exaggeration(hyperbolization) and understatement of real-life objects or their parts (for example, creating images of a giant, genie or Thumbelina); accentuation- emphasizing or exaggerating real-life objects or their parts (for example, Pinocchio’s long nose, Malvina’s blue hair); agglutination- combining various, real-life parts and properties of objects in unusual combinations (for example, creating fictional images of a centaur, mermaid). The specificity of the imagination process is that they do not reproduce certain impressions in the same combinations and forms in which they were perceived and stored as past experience, but build new combinations and forms from them. This reveals a deep internal connection between imagination and creativity, which is always aimed at creating something new - material values, scientific ideas, or.

The relationship between imagination and creativity

There are different types of creativity: scientific, technical, literary, artistic etc. None of these types is possible without the participation of imagination. In its main function - anticipation of what does not yet exist, it determines the emergence of intuition, conjecture, insight as the central link of the creative process. Imagination helps a scientist to see the phenomenon being studied in a new light. In the history of science there are many examples of the emergence of images of the imagination, which were subsequently realized into new ideas, great discoveries and inventions.

The English physicist M. Faraday, studying the interaction of conductors with current at a distance, imagined that they were surrounded by invisible lines like tentacles. This led him to the discovery of lines of force and the phenomena of electromagnetic induction. The German engineer O. Lilienthal observed and analyzed the soaring flight of birds for a long time. The image of an artificial bird that arose in his imagination served as the basis for the invention of the glider and the first flight on it.

When creating literary works, the writer realizes in words the images of his aesthetic imagination. Their brightness, breadth and depth of the phenomena of reality they cover are subsequently felt by readers, and evoke in them feelings of co-creation. L.N. Tolstoy wrote in his diaries that “when perceiving truly artistic works, the illusion arises that a person does not perceive, but creates, it seems to him that he has produced such a beautiful thing.”

The role of imagination in pedagogical creativity is also great. Its specificity lies in the fact that the results of pedagogical activity do not appear immediately, but after some, sometimes a long time. Their presentation in the form of a model of the child’s developing personality, the image of his behavior and thinking in the future determines the choice of teaching and upbringing methods, pedagogical requirements and influences.

All people have different abilities for creativity. Their formation is determined by a large number of different aspects. These include innate inclinations, human activity, environmental features, learning and upbringing conditions that influence the development of a person’s mental processes and personality traits that contribute to creative achievements.

1. Theoretical part

1.3 Types of imagination

1.4 Development of imagination, conditions for the development of imagination

1.5 Imagination, expression, bodily dialogue

2. Practical part

2.1 Who has a richer imagination: an adult or a child?

2.2 Test to identify the child’s development level

2.3 Solving imagination problems

2.4 Tests for studying the development of imagination

1. Theoretical part

1.1 Brief description of imagination

Imagination is the mental process of creating an image of an object or situation by restructuring existing ideas. Imagination has its source in objective reality. And in turn, the products of imagination find objective material expression. It is associated with personality characteristics, interests, knowledge and skills.

The physiological basis of imagination is the formation of new combinations from temporary connections that have already been formed in past experience.

Functions of the imagination

Representing activities in images and creating the opportunity to use them when solving problems;

Regulation of emotional relationships;

Voluntary regulation of cognitive processes and human states;

Formation of a person’s internal plan;

Planning and programming of human activities.

Forms of expression of imagination

1. Construction of the image, means and final result of the activity.

2. Creating a program of behavior in an uncertain situation.

3. Creation of images corresponding to the description of the object, etc.

Forms of synthesis of representations in imagination processes

Agglutination is a combination of qualities, properties, parts of objects that are not connected in reality;

Hyperbolization or emphasis - increasing or decreasing an object, changing the quality of its parts;

Sharpening - emphasizing any features of objects;

Schematization - smoothing out the differences between objects and identifying similarities between them;

Typification is the selection of the essential, repeated in homogeneous phenomena and its embodiment in a specific image.

Types of imagination

1. Active imagination is controlled by willpower. Images of passive imagination arise spontaneously, in addition to a person’s desire.

2. Recreating imagination - the idea of something new for a given person, based on a verbal description or conventional image of this new thing. Creative - imagination that gives new, original, images created for the first time. The source of creativity is the social need for a particular new product. It determines the emergence of a creative idea, a creative plan, which leads to the emergence of a new one.

3. Fantasy is a type of imagination that produces images that have little correspondence with reality. However, fantasy images are never completely divorced from reality. It has been noticed that if any product of fantasy is decomposed into its constituent elements, then among them it will be difficult to find something that does not really exist. Daydreaming is a fantasy associated with a desire, most often a somewhat idealized future. A dream differs from a daydream in that it is more realistic and more closely related to reality. Dreams are passive and involuntary forms of imagination in which many vital human needs are expressed. Hallucinations are fantastic visions, usually the result of mental disorders or painful conditions.

1.2 Imagination, its essence, forms of expression of imagination, forms of synthesis of ideas in the process of imagination

Everyone probably knows what imagination is. We very often say to each other: “Imagine such a situation...”, “Imagine that you...” or “Well, come up with something!” So, in order to do all this - “imagine”, “imagine”, “invent” - we need imagination. To this laconic definition of the concept of “imagination” only a few strokes should be added.

A person can imagine something that he has never perceived before, that he has never encountered in life, or something that will be created in a more or less distant future. This kind of representation is called representation of the imagination or simply imagination.

Imagination is a higher cognitive process, a psychological activity consisting in the creation of ideas and mental situations that are never generally perceived by a person in reality.

The imagination reflects the outside world in a unique and unique way; it allows you to program not only future behavior, but also to imagine the possible conditions in which this behavior will be carried out.

Imagination is not the ability to fantasize without a goal, but the intuitive ability to see the essence of parameters - their natural logic. It combines images of what does not yet exist from materials of memory and feelings, creates an image of the unknown as known, that is, creates its objective content and meaning, considers them valid. Therefore, imagination is the self-movement of sensory and semantic reflections, and the mechanism of imagination unites them into integrity, synthesizes feelings into thought, as a result of which a new image or judgment is created about the unknown as about the known. And all this does not happen materially - in the mental plane, when a person acts without practically working.

A person’s imagination is his ability to look ahead and consider a new object in its future state.

Therefore, the past at every moment of a person’s life must exist in accordance with one or another purposefulness towards the future. If memory claims to be active and effective, and not just a repository of experience, it must always be aimed at the future, at the shape of the future self, one's abilities and what one strives to achieve. Such imagination always works: a person transforms objects and raw materials not just in the imagination, but really with the help of imagination, paving the way to the desired object. Surprise is of great importance in activating the work of the imagination. Surprise in turn is caused by:

¨  the novelty of the perceived “something”;

¨  awareness of it as something unknown and interesting;

¨  an impulse that sets in advance the quality of imagination and thinking, attracts attention, captures the feelings and the whole person.

Imagination, together with intuition, is capable of not only creating an image of a future object or thing, but also finding its natural measure - a state of perfect harmony - the logic of its structure. It gives rise to the ability to discover, helps to find new ways to develop technology and technology, ways to solve problems and problems that arise before a person.

The initial forms of imagination first appear at the end of early childhood in connection with the emergence of plot-based role-playing games and the development of the sign-symbolic function of consciousness. The child learns to replace real objects and situations with imaginary ones, to build new images from existing ideas. Further development of imagination goes in several directions.

Þ Along the lines of expanding the range of replaced objects and improving the substitution operation itself, connecting with the development of logical thinking.

Þ Along the lines of improving the operations of recreating imagination. The child gradually begins to create increasingly complex images and their systems based on existing descriptions, texts, and fairy tales. The content of these images develops and enriches. A personal attitude is introduced into the images; they are characterized by brightness, richness, and emotionality.

Þ Creative imagination develops when the child not only understands some techniques of expressiveness, but also applies them independently.

Þ Imagination becomes mediated and intentional. The child begins to create images in accordance with the set goal and certain requirements, according to a pre-proposed plan, and control the degree of compliance of the result with the task.

Imagination is expressed:

1. In constructing the image of the means and the final result of the subject’s objective activity.

2. In creating a behavior program when the problem situation is uncertain.

3. In the production of images that are not programmed, but replace activity.

4. Creation of images that correspond to the description of the object.

The most important meaning of imagination is that it allows you to imagine the result of work before it begins (for example, a table in its completed form as a finished product), thereby orienting a person in the process of activity. Creating, with the help of imagination, a model of the final or intermediate product of labor (those parts that must be consistently produced in order to assemble a table) contributes to its objective embodiment.

The essence of imagination, if we talk about its mechanisms, is the transformation of ideas, the creation of new images based on existing ones. Imagination is a reflection of reality in new, unusual, unexpected combinations and connections.

There are 4 types of imagination:

Representations of what exists in reality, but which a person has not previously perceived;

Representations of the historical past;

Ideas of what will happen in the future and what never happened in reality.

No matter how new what is created by a person’s imagination, it inevitably comes from what exists in reality and is based on it. Therefore, imagination, like the entire psyche, is a reflection of the surrounding world by the brain, but only a reflection of what a person did not perceive, a reflection of what will become reality in the future.

Physiologically, the process of imagination is the process of the formation of new combinations and combinations from already established temporary nerve connections in the cerebral cortex.

The process of imagination always occurs in inextricable connection with two other mental processes - memory and thinking. Just like thinking, imagination arises in a problem situation, that is, in cases where it is necessary to find new solutions; just like thinking, it is motivated by the needs of the individual. The real process of satisfying needs can be preceded by an illusory, imaginary satisfaction of needs, that is, a living, vivid representation of the situation in which these needs can be satisfied. But the anticipatory reflection of reality, carried out in fantasy processes, occurs in a concrete form. Imagination works at that stage of cognition when the uncertainty of the situation is very great. The more familiar, precise and definite a situation is, the less scope it gives for imagination. However, if you have very approximate information about the situation, on the contrary, it is difficult to get an answer with the help of thinking - this is where fantasy comes into play. Speaking about imagination, we only emphasize the predominant direction of mental activity. If a person is faced with the task of reproducing representations of things and events that were previously in his experience, we are talking about memory processes. But if the same ideas are reproduced in order to create a new combination of these ideas or create new ideas from them, we talk about the activity of the imagination.

The activity of the imagination is most closely connected with 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 situations 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 connected with the implementation of our volitional actions. Thus, imagination is present in any type of our work activity, since before creating anything, it is necessary to have ideas about what we are creating.

Imagination, due to the characteristics of the systems responsible for it, is to a certain extent associated with the regulation of organic processes and movement. Imagination influences many organic processes: the functioning of the glands, the activity of internal organs, metabolism, etc. For example: the idea of a delicious dinner causes us to salivate profusely, and by instilling in a person the idea of a burn, we can cause real signs of a “burn” on the skin.

We can conclude that imagination plays a significant role both in the regulation of the processes of the human body and in the regulation of its motivated behavior.

The main tendency of the imagination is the transformation of ideas (images), which ultimately ensures the creation of a model of a situation that is obviously new and has not previously arisen.

Every new image, new idea is correlated with reality and, in case of discrepancy, is rejected as false or corrected

The synthesis of ideas in the processes of imagination is carried out in various forms:

Agglutination is a combination ("gluing") of various qualities, properties, parts of objects that are not combined in reality; the result can be a very bizarre image, sometimes far from reality; many fairy-tale images are built by agglutination (a mermaid, a hut on chicken legs, etc. .), it is also used in technical creativity (for example, the accordion is a combination of piano and button accordion);

Hyperbolization or emphasis - a paradoxical increase or decrease in an object (Tom Thumb, Gulliver), a change in the number of its parts, any detail or part of the whole is highlighted and made dominant, bearing the main load (dragons with seven heads, etc.) ;

Sharpening - emphasizing any features of objects; using this technique, caricatures and evil caricatures are created;

Schematization - smoothing out the differences between objects and identifying similarities between them, for example, the artist’s creation of an ornament, the elements of which are taken from the plant world;

Typification - the selection of the essential, repeated in homogeneous phenomena and its embodiment in a specific image, bordering on the creative process, is widely used in fiction, sculpture, and painting.

There is no doubt that this function plays an important role in the overall development of the child, in the formation of his personality, in the formation of life experience. Because of this, constant work is necessary to develop the imagination of children of preschool and primary school age, while simultaneously using it to optimize educational activities. When solving any mental problem, a child uses some information. However, there are...

First centuries. This continuing childish state of imagination, which is generally an anomaly, produces funny curiosities rather than creations. In the mentioned third period of imagination development, a secondary additional law is manifested - increasing complexity; it follows a progressive movement from simple to complex. To tell the truth, this is not a law of imagination in the proper sense...

With their help, you can predict and even imitate phenomena, events or designed objects within predetermined parameters. 1.2 3DS Max 2008 as a way to develop the imagination of high school students As follows from the above, imagination plays a big role in the development of personality, and the ability to create the correct mental model is directly related to the imagination of students and develops it. ...