Along with perception, memory, thinking and speech, imagination plays an important role in human activity.
Imagination is a mental process of mental creation of a new one in the form of an image, representation, idea, action. At the same time, it is a phenomenon of the psyche. Also, imagination is the representation of an absent object. The process of imagination is peculiar only to man and is necessary condition his labor activity.
A person, before doing something, imagines what needs to be done and how he will do it. Thus, he already creates an image of a material thing in advance, which will be produced in subsequent practical activities. 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.
Types of imagination:
- arbitrary (active) - initiated by an effort of will, if necessary, in the course of solving problems;
- involuntary (passive) - is initiated involuntarily and manifests itself in dreams, dreams, fantasies, daydreams;
- productive - "producing" something (the novel "The Master and Margarita", fantasy);
- reproductive - "reproducing", recreating reality - what was known (in art - naturalism, realism);
- anticipating - anticipating future events, the consequences of actions;
- creative - creating new images and ideas that are of value to people and embodied in original products of activity.
Reality is passed through the productive imagination of the creators, they construct it in a new way, using light, color, filling their works with air vibration (impressionism), resorting to a dotted image of objects (pointillism in painting and music), decomposing the objective world into geometric figures(cubism), etc.
Most often, the creative process in art is associated with active imagination: before imprinting any image on paper, canvas or music sheet, the artist creates it in his imagination, applying conscious volitional efforts to this. Often, active imagination captures the creator so much that he loses touch with his time, his "I", getting used to the image he creates. There is a lot of evidence for this in the literature.
Rarely impulse creative process becomes a passive imagination, since spontaneous images independent of the will of the artist are most often the product of the subconscious work of his brain, hidden from himself. Nevertheless, observations of the creative process described in the literature provide an opportunity to give examples of the role of passive imagination in artistic creation. So, Franz Kafka gave an exceptional role in his work to dreams, capturing them in his fantastically gloomy works.
In addition, the creative process, starting, as a rule, with an effort of will, that is, with an act of imagination, gradually captures the author so much that the imagination becomes spontaneous, and it is no longer he who creates images, but images own and control the artist, and he obeys their logic.
The work of the human imagination is not limited to literature and art. To no lesser extent, it manifests itself in scientific, technical, and other types of creativity. In all these cases fantasy as a kind of imagination plays a positive role.
But there are other types of imagination - dreams, hallucinations, daydreams, daydreams, fantasies. Dreams can be classified as passive and involuntary forms of imagination. Their true role in human life has not yet been established, although it is known that in a person’s dreams many vital needs are expressed and satisfied, which, for a number of reasons, cannot be realized in real life.
Hallucinations are called fantastic visions that have almost no connection with the reality surrounding a person. Usually hallucinations are the result of certain disorders of the psyche or the work of the body and accompany many painful conditions.
Dreams, unlike hallucinations, are a completely normal mental state, which is a fantasy associated with a desired, most often with a somewhat idealized future.
A dream differs from a dream in that it is more realistic and more connected with reality, that is, in principle, feasible. A dream is a thought about a pleasant, desired future, its image.
Daydreams and dreams in a person take up quite a large part of the time, especially in youth. For most people, dreams are pleasant thoughts about the future.
Fantasies are pictures to which nothing or little corresponds to reality. Some people also have disturbing visions that give rise to feelings of anxiety, guilt, aggressiveness.
Images of the imagination, unlike images of perception, often do not correspond to reality.
The image can be a product of perception, then it is formed by direct impact on the senses.
However, there are images that arise without the direct participation of the senses. Namely, the image can be taken from memory, for example, the image of a real person who went to live in another city. His image also arose when exposed to the senses, but only in the past.
And more examples. A mermaid that no one has ever seen. Or any goal is an image of the desired future, which has not yet come and, perhaps, will never come.
All these images arose without a direct impact on the senses, thanks to the imagination.
Imagination is a mental process of image formation object, situation or other aspect of reality, in the absence of direct sensorimotor contact, based on existing impressions and ideas.
Here we first used the term "view", which has the following meaning:
Representation - image previously perceived object, phenomenon, situation or other aspect of reality (representation of memory, recollection), as well as an image created by the imagination.
So, as a result of the work of the imagination, representations are born, however, not every representation is a product of the imagination - some representations are simply taken from memory.
Representations are single and general.
For example, the particular birch we are thinking about is a single representation. Birch in general is a general idea. But anyway, whatever the idea of a birch, we literally physically feel the rough and cool white bark, the noise of leaves, etc.
Those. representations of any generality still have a sensuously visual form, they are still at the figurative level, as well as sensations and perceptions. The order of complication of these objects is as follows:
sensation → perception → individual representation → general representation.
General representations border on concepts that belong to the verbal-logical level, since no longer have a sensuously visual form. For example, birch, as a concept, belongs to the plant kingdom, it is a genus of trees and shrubs of the birch family, found in the temperate and cold zones of the Northern Hemisphere and in the mountains of the subtropics.
In the light of the activity approach that dominates Russian psychology, the most important significance of imagination as a mental process lies in the fact that it allows the subject to present the result of the activity before the start of its implementation. Modeling in the imagination of the desired result necessarily precedes its substantive implementation through specific actions and operations.
For a long time it was believed that the imagination operates only with figurative representations and does not extend to the content expressed by abstract concepts. IN last years a different approach has emerged - the imagination is increasingly seen as a combination of not only figurative, but also abstract elements.
It should be emphasized the enormous role that the imagination plays in the rational knowledge of the world. This cognitive process important not only for art, but also for scientific activity. Confirmation can be thought experiment, the methodological justification for which was already given by Galileo Galilei 400 years ago. Thanks to productive work imagination, Galileo was able to simulate a situation that was impossible from the point of view of Aristotelian physics: if all the reasons that prevent the free movement of a body in space are eliminated, the body will keep moving indefinitely. This situation, the possibility of which is revealed only on the plane of the imaginary, has become a classic illustration of the doctrine of inertial motion.
So, scientific thinking forms knowledge about the world, based on an imaginary result. thought experiment, and the productive power of the imagination manifests itself not in the multiplication of illusions, but in providing a rational comprehension of reality. It is no coincidence that the outstanding physicist Ernest Rutherford saw the prerequisites for the progress of scientific knowledge in the combination of fantasy and experiment.
Representation, or a secondary image, is an image of an object reproduced by the subject, based on the past experience of this subject and arising in the absence of an impact of the object on his senses. Like perceptions, representations are visual. However, they differ from perceptions in less brightness, fragmentation (in the presence of a holistic image of an object, some details may be absent in it), instability (they are characterized by variability, “fluidity” of details, properties). Images of representation differ from images of perception also in generality. The generalization of an image can be expressed to varying degrees, namely, from a specific representation of an object in a particular moment to an abstract image of a whole class of objects. Highly generalized representations are inherent in the system of thinking.
Representations are polymodal, i.e. they include tactile-kinesthetic, visual, auditory and other components. However, in each specific representation, some modality turns out to be leading: thus, auditory, gustatory and other representations stand out. The greatest role in human mental activity is played by visual representations. If the representations of other modalities differ in concreteness, a low level of generalization, then visual representations can refer to different levels of the psyche: from specific memory images to abstract visualized thinking patterns. Visual representations are stable and diverse. Between performances different people there are always differences - in the degree of brightness, distinctness, stability, completeness of the image. The representations of one person may differ in these qualities depending on the modality. Representation is not a mechanical reproduction of what is perceived. This is a changeable dynamic formation, each time under certain conditions, it is created anew and determined by the multiply connected relations of subject and object.
Representations are images of memory in the event that the previously perceived is reproduced in the image and if the relation of the image to past experience is realized by the subject. If the representation is formed irrespective of the previously perceived, even if using it in a more or less transformed form, then the representation is not an image of memory, but an image of imagination. Representation and imagination are both a reproduction - albeit a very distant and indirect one - and a transformation of reality. These two tendencies - reproduction and transformation, data are always in some unity, at the same time they diverge from each other due to their opposite. If reproduction is the main characteristic of memory, then transformation is the main characteristic of imagination. The main difference between memory and imagination is in a different relation to reality. The images of memory carry and preserve the results of past experience, the images of the imagination transform them.
On present stage development of scientific and technological progress increases the importance of the study of secondary images. The ability to act according to an idea, that is, to freely operate with ideas, is considered by psychologists as one of the important qualities necessary for mastering many modern professions. Representations play an important role in different types operator activities.
Applied at pilot study representations, methods can be divided into two groups: the first includes methods that use the data of self-assessment and self-observation of the subject, and the second - methods that do not use such data. The methods of the first group can be called subjective, and the methods of the second - objective. When using the so-called subjective methods, the subject's statements about his own ideas (the descriptions he gives or the general characteristics of the ideas) are considered as a direct reflection of the qualities of the ideas themselves. When using the so-called objective methods, only objective data obtained in the experiment and recorded by the experimenter (verbal answers or drawings of the subject, quantitative results of the experiment, etc.) are taken into account. They are considered as indicators of certain properties of representations. The main difficulties in using subjective methods lie in the subjective nature of the descriptions and assessments of the subject and the impossibility of their verification by the experimenter. One of the main difficulties in using objective methods is the more or less problematic nature of the supposed relationship between the studied properties of representations and the data taken as indicators of them.
As an example subjective methods can be called a self-ranking method (see activity 4.1). As an example of objective methods, we will cite the “Method of the square of letters”. The subject is shown for a short time a large square divided into 9, 16 or 25 small squares.
squares, in each of which a letter is inscribed. Then the subject is asked to name the letters in a different order: from left to right, from top to bottom, etc. Assuming that the performance of such a task requires a live visual representation, they consider its successful completion to be a sign of the visual type of representations.
2. Representation and imagination
Human cognitive activity does not stop with the cessation of sensations and perceptions. In life, he very often has to evaluate something that is not directly in the zone of action of the senses.
Consequently, the 2nd level of cognition of the surrounding world begins, as it were, the 2nd, more complex level of cognitive processes manifests itself.
When there is not a single sensation, not to mention perception, but it is necessary to realize, analyze the object, a representation comes to the rescue.
Representation is a mental cognitive process, a subjective image of previously perceived objective objects and phenomena. The mechanism of representation - the stimulus (word, signal, symbol, thought) causes old neural connections, which recreate the old perceptions.
Performance- as if the transition from sensations and perceptions to thought, while in comparison with perception it has differences:
1) has less brightness and distinctness;
2) characterized by greater variability and mobility;
3) it is more generalized (the main thing stands out, and the rest seems to fall out);
4) it is completely subjective, because it is based on a personal attitude to what is presented.
At the same time, in terms of brightness, the representation may coincide with the perception, or it may have only parts of the former perception.
In terms of clarity, the representation may be detailed if the initial impression was very strong; but it can only be contour, schematic, if it is based on a spontaneously arisen or very old perception.
Finally, depending on the degree of participation of consciousness (higher nervous activity) in creating representations, they are divided into memory representations - samples of objects (phenomena) that were previously perceived, and imagination representations - samples that in real life were not perceived before in this form. In most psychological sources, this type of representation is considered as an independent mental cognitive process - imagination.
Imagination is a mental cognitive process, which consists in creating new images (representations) by processing the materials of perceptions obtained in previous experience. .
The range of imagination is extremely wide, from the most fantastic fairy tale to an almost future reality. Imagination is the ability to create both intermediate and, at the maximum, final results of activity.
K. Marx wrote: “... even the worst architect differs from the best bee in that before building a cell from wax, he has already built it in his head. At the end of the labor process, a result is obtained, which already at the beginning of this process is in the mind of a person. .
Imagination it can be passive - without preliminary intentions and plans (dreams, dreams) and active - the result of a special intention (plan, forecast, development of an idea, etc.).
In turn, arbitrary imagination is divided into recreative - the creation of new images based on known components or descriptions (schemes, instructions, projects, drawings), and creative - the creation of new samples without specific components that require selection in accordance with the plan (creation of machines, mechanisms , works of art).
Creative imagination is inextricably linked with a special spiritual state of a person in the process of activity - inspiration.
Finally, a kind of creative imagination associated with the realization of the desired future is a dream.
Basic forms of imagination:
1) agglutination - the connection of the unconnected (flying carpet, hut on chicken legs, amphibian man);
2) hyperbolization - an excessive change in quantity and quality: exaggeration - understatement (man-mountain, boy with a finger); sharpening - softening (caricature - friendly caricature).
Thus, representation and imagination are important psychological processes, the basis of a creative attitude to work.
The images that a person operates with include not only previously perceived objects and phenomena. The content of images can also be something that he never perceived directly: pictures of the distant past or future; places where he has never been and never will be; beings that do not exist, not only on Earth, but in general in the Universe. Images allow a person to go beyond the real world in time and space. It is these images, transforming, modifying human experience, that are the main characteristic of the imagination.
Usually, imagination or fantasy does not mean 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, therefore, has no practical significance. In fact, imagination, as the basis of all creative activity, equally manifests itself decisively in all aspects. cultural life making artistic, scientific and technical creativity possible.
Through sensations, perception and thinking, a person reflects the real properties of the objects of the surrounding reality and acts in accordance with them in a particular situation. Through memory, he uses his past experience. But human behavior can be determined not only by the actual or past properties of the situation, but also by those that may be inherent in it in the future. Thanks to this ability, human mind there are images of objects that do not currently exist, but later can be embodied in specific objects. The ability to reflect the future and act according to the expected, i.e. imaginary, the situation is characteristic only for man.
Imagination- the cognitive process of reflecting the future by creating new images based on the processing of images of perception, thinking and ideas obtained in previous experience.
Through imagination, images are created that have never been generally accepted by a person in reality. The essence of imagination lies in the transformation of the world. This determines the most important role of imagination in the development of man as an acting subject.
Imagination and thinking are processes 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 the processes of forecasting and anticipation are always included in thinking. In problem situations, a person uses thinking and imagination. The idea formed in the imagination of a possible solution reinforces the motivation of the search, and determines its direction. The more uncertain the problem situation is, the more unknown it is, the more significant the role of the imagination becomes. It can be carried out with incomplete initial data, since it supplements them with products of its 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 the mind of a person, 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 the imagination”
For example, a person needs to cross a stormy river in a boat. Imagining that the boat might capsize, he experiences not an imaginary, but a real fear. This prompts him to choose a safer way of crossing.
Imagination can influence the strength of emotions and feelings experienced by a person. For example, people often experience a feeling of anxiety, anxiety about only imaginary, and not real events. Changing the image of the imagination can reduce the level of anxiety, relieve tension. The representation of the experiences of another person helps to form and manifest feelings of empathy and empathy towards him. In volitional actions, representation in the imagination end result activity encourages its implementation. The brighter the image of the imagination, the greater the motivating force, but at the same time, the realism of the image also matters.
Imagination is a significant factor influencing the development of personality. Ideals as an imaginary image that a person wants to imitate or strive for serve as models for organizing his life, personal and moral development.
Types of imagination
There are different kinds of imagination. By degree of activity imagination can be passive or active. passive imagination does not stimulate a person to action. He is satisfied with the created images and does not seek 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 that 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 enhances the creative content and efficiency of other activities as well.
Productive
Imagination is called productive, in the images of which there is a lot of new (elements of fantasy). The products of such imagination usually resemble nothing, or bear very little resemblance to what is already known.
reproductive
Reproductive is imagination, in the products of which there is a lot of what is already known, although there are also individual elements of the new. Such, for example, is the imagination of a novice poet, writer, engineer, artist, who at first create their creations according to known patterns, thereby learning professional skills.
hallucinations
Hallucinations are called products of the imagination, born in 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 of a person. Dreams as a form of imagination are especially characteristic of young people, who have a large part of their lives ahead of them.
dreams
Dreams are called peculiar dreams, which, as a rule, are divorced from reality and, in principle, are not feasible. Dreams are intermediate between dreams and hallucinations, but their difference from hallucinations lies in the fact that dreams are the 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 the processes of information processing by the human brain can be reflected in dreams, 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 with a weakened activity of consciousness, imagination is called involuntary. It occurs in a semi-drowsy state or in sleep, as well as in some disorders of consciousness. Arbitrary 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. Activity and arbitrariness of the imagination can be combined different ways. An example of arbitrary passive imagination is dreams, when a person deliberately indulges in thoughts that are unlikely to ever come true. Arbitrary active imagination is manifested 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. recreative imagination is the creation of images of objects that were not previously perceived in a finished form by a person, although he is familiar with similar objects or with their individual elements. Images are formed according to a verbal description, a schematic image - a drawing, drawing, 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 the representations of memory by the great variety, flexibility and dynamism of the elements of the image. Creative imagination is the independent creation of new images that are embodied in original products of various activities with minimal indirect reliance on past experience.
realistic imagination
Drawing various images in their imagination, people always evaluate the possibility of their realization in reality. realistic imagination takes place if a person believes in the reality and the possibility of embodying the created images. If he does not see such a possibility, fantastic imagination takes place. There is no hard line between realistic and fantastic imagination. There are many cases when 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 the role-playing games of children. 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 common function, which determines their main importance in human life - anticipation of the future, the ideal representation of the result of the activity before it is achieved. Other functions of the imagination are also associated with it - stimulating and planning. The images created in the imagination induce, stimulate a person to implement them in specific actions. The transforming influence of the imagination extends not only to the future activity of a person, 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 images of the imagination is carried out through complex processes of processing actual perceived information and memory representations. Just as it is in thinking, the main processes or operations of the imagination are analysis and synthesis. Through analysis, objects or ideas about them are divided into component parts, and with the help of synthesis, a complete image of the object is rebuilt. But unlike thinking in the imagination, a person handles the elements of objects more freely, recreating new integral images.
This is achieved through a complex of processes specific to the imagination. The main ones are exaggeration(hyperbolization) and underestimation of real-life objects or their parts (for example, creating images of a giant, genie or Thumbelina); emphasis- emphasizing or exaggerating real-life objects or their parts (for example, Pinocchio's long nose, Malvina's blue hair); agglutination- the combination of various, real-life parts and properties of objects in unusual combinations (for example, the creation of fictional images of a centaur, a mermaid). The specificity of the imagination process lies in the fact that they do not reproduce certain impressions in the same combinations and forms in which they were perceived and stored in the form of past experience, but build new combinations and forms from them. This manifests a deep inner connection between imagination and creativity, which is always aimed at creating something new - material values, scientific ideas or.
Relationship between imagination and creativity
There are different types of creativity: scientific, technical, literary, artistic and others. None of these types is possible without the participation of the imagination. In its main function - anticipation of what does not yet exist, it causes the emergence of intuition, conjecture, insight as the central link in the creative process. Imagination helps the scientist to see the phenomenon under study in a new light. In the history of science there are many examples of the emergence of images of the imagination, subsequently realized in 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 discover lines of force and 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.
Creating literary works, the writer realizes in the word the images of his aesthetic imagination. Their brightness, breadth and depth of the phenomena of reality covered by them are subsequently felt by readers, and cause them feelings of co-creation. L. N. Tolstoy wrote in his diaries that “with the perception of a truly works of art there is an illusion that a person does not perceive, but creates, it seems to him that it was he who produced such a beautiful thing.
The role of imagination in pedagogical creativity is also great. Its specificity is that the results pedagogical activity do not appear immediately, but after some, sometimes long time. Their presentation in the form of a model of the child's personality being formed, the way of his behavior and thinking in the future determines the choice of teaching and upbringing methods, pedagogical requirements and influences.
All people have different creative abilities. Their formation is determined by a large number of various aspects. These include innate inclinations, human activities, features environment, the conditions of training and education that affect the development of human characteristics mental processes and personality traits that contribute to creative achievements.