General idea of ​​imagination. Types and functions of imagination. Imagination. The concept of imagination, its main types and processes

Imagination is the process of building new images by reworking content and experience.

In a broad sense - the process of operating images.

Role of imagination

1. Imagination is the basis of creativity, it is the movement of society forward

2. Brings a person out of the existing situation and reminds him of the past.

Imagination functions

1. Figurative representation of reality.

2. Regulation of the emotional state.

3. Regulation of behavior.

4.Formation of an internal action plan.

5. Planning and programming of actions.

Imagination is related to memory and thinking.

Physiological mechanism

This is a complex analytical-synthetic activity, during which neural connections are updated and regrouped into new systems.

Associated with the subcortex and gipatolamo-limbic system. Speech plays a huge role in the process of imagination.

Essence of Imagination – images of the imagination do not arise from nothing, it is always the use of what has already been in the experience of a person.

Stages of imagination - analysis, synthesis.

Factors affecting the imagination :

1. A wealth of experience.

2. Features of nervous activity.

Imaginative personality traits include:

1. Prosaic - the absence of a lofty dream, attachment to everyday trifles.

2. Romanticism - a rich imagination, ideas, hypotheses, characteristic of active and strong-willed natures.

3. Fantasy - imperceptible distortion of facts, wishful thinking. Often seen in children.

Some are aware of fantasy, some are not. This feature is used to be interesting, to increase self-esteem and as a way of implementation.

Types of imagination

By degree of activity: passive, active

According to the degree of volitional efforts - intentional and unintentional

Active intentional imagination:

1. Recreative imagination - when a person recreates the representation of an object that would correspond to the description.

2.Creative - when recreating, your own vision is added.

3. Dream - independent creation of new images.

Dream Difference:

1. In a dream, an image of what is desired is created.

2. A process that is not included in creative activity, since it does not give the final result.

3. The dream is directed to the future. If a person constantly dreams, he is in the future. Not here and now.

4. Dreams sometimes come true.

Passive deliberate imagination or daydreaming

Dreams are not associated with volitional efforts. They are like a dream. If a person is in dreams all the time, he does not live in the present. Dreams are not realized. Possible mental disorders

unintentional passive

1.Sleep

2. Hallucinations - when non-existent objects are perceived, more often with mental disorders.

Imagination (fantasy)* is a mental process that consists in creating new images based on the data of past experience. Like thinking, imagination belongs to the highest cognitive processes; it arose in the process of labor activity and is characteristic only of a person.

* In the psychological literature, the concepts of "imagination" and "fantasy" are considered as synonyms.

In human life, imagination performs a number of specific functions. Thanks to the imagination, its cognitive possibilities are greatly expanded. Imagination is a necessary condition for search creative activity. This contributes to the concentration of mental focus, increases the intensity of attention. Therefore, they speak of the cognitive function of the imagination. Imagination also performs an anticipatory function in cognition and activity. This is manifested in anticipation of the result of any act. Almost all human material and spiritual culture is a product of the imagination. It takes a person beyond the limits of his momentary existence, reminds him of the past, opens the future.

The regulatory function of the imagination lies in the fact that it creates a certain attitude of the individual to what should happen, and orients the person in the process of activity - creates a mental model of the final or intermediate product of labor, which contributes to at least partial satisfaction of many needs, the removal of the tension generated by them. .

Imagination is closely connected with cognitive mental processes and the personality as a whole. Its specificity lies in the processing of past experience, preserved in the form of ideas and concepts. And in this respect, it is inextricably linked with the processes of memory and transforms what is in memory.

Imagination is closely interconnected with the process of perception. It is included in perception, affects the creation of images of perceived objects and at the same time itself depends on it. Being included in perception, it enriches new images, makes them more productive. Thus, the perception of works of art becomes more meaningful, emotional, when imagination is involved in it.

Imagination plays a significant role in drawing up a plan and program for future actions. The function of planning and programming allows a person to create, intelligently direct and manage activities. Imagination acts as a necessary element of human creative activity, expressed in the construction of images of labor products in cases where the situation is characterized by uncertainty.

Imagination also plays a huge role in transforming the reality around us, performing the most important control and corrective function. On the basis of the activity of the imagination, a person can foresee the course of certain events, changes in phenomena, the course of a process, can expect the result of his actions, actions, and in speech communication - what effect his statement will have on the interlocutor, and what he will say and do companion. If necessary, the activity of the imagination can be directed to the ability to notice errors and correct them.



And, finally, it is impossible not to note the emotional function of the imagination. It enhances the emotional tone of the individual, improves mood, causes an uplift. With the help of imagination, a person can at least partially satisfy many needs, relieve tension. This is especially evident in the work of people of creative professions - artists, artists. For successful pedagogical activity, this function of imagination is of paramount importance.

Imagination is closely related to thinking. Like thinking, it allows you to foresee the future. Imagination is the basis of visual-figurative thinking, which allows a person to navigate the situation and solve problems without the direct intervention of practical actions. Both thinking and imagination arise in a problem situation, are motivated by the need of the individual, and are based on anticipatory reflection. But the anticipatory reflection of reality, carried out in the process of imagination, occurs in the form of vivid representations, while the anticipatory reflection in the processes of thinking occurs by operating with concepts that allow one to generalize and indirectly cognize the environment. The foregoing indicates that the activity of the imagination is very close to thinking. These processes are closely interconnected. But these are different mental processes. The task of the imagination is to transform the past into the new. The task of thinking is generalized and mediated cognition based on establishing links between objects and phenomena. The activity of the imagination depends on the general orientation of the personality. Of particular importance in the creation of his images is the worldview, the general orientation of the individual to their subject embodiment. Through imagination, a person gets the opportunity to control perception, memory, and utterance. Thus, it acquires an incentive value, contributing to the revitalization of activity.

The experimental study of imagination has been a subject of interest for Western psychologists since the 1950s. The function of imagination - the construction and creation of images - has been recognized as the most important human ability. Its role in the creative process was equated with the role of knowledge and judgment. In the 1950s, J. Guilford and his followers developed the theory of creative (creative) intelligence.

The definition of imagination and the identification of the specifics of its development is one of the most difficult problems in psychology. According to A.Ya. Dudetsky (1974), there are about 40 different definitions of imagination, but the question of its essence and difference from other mental processes is still debatable. So, A.V. Brushlinsky (1969) rightly notes the difficulties in defining imagination, the vagueness of the boundaries of this concept. He believes that "Traditional definitions of imagination as the ability to create new images actually reduce this process to creative thinking, to operating with ideas, and concludes that this concept is generally still redundant - at least in modern science."

S.L. Rubinstein emphasized: "Imagination is a special form of the psyche that only a person can have. It is continuously connected with the human ability to change the world, transform reality and create something new."

With a rich imagination, a person can live in different times, which no other living being in the world can afford. The past is fixed in images of memory, and the future is presented in dreams and fantasies. S.L. Rubinstein writes: "Imagination is a departure from past experience, it is a transformation of the given and the generation of new images on this basis."

L.S. Vygotsky believes that “Imagination does not repeat impressions that have been accumulated before, but builds some new rows from previously accumulated impressions. Thus, introducing something new into our impressions and changing these impressions so that as a result a new, previously non-existent image , constitutes the basis of that activity which we call imagination.

Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. The specificity of this form of mental process lies in the fact that imagination is probably characteristic only of a person and is strangely connected with the activity of the organism, being at the same time the most "mental" of all mental processes and states.

In the textbook "General Psychology" A.G. Maklakov gives the following definition of imagination: “Imagination is the process of transforming ideas that reflect reality, and creating new ideas on this basis.

In the textbook "General Psychology" V.M. Kozubovsky contains the following definition. Imagination is the mental process of a person creating in his mind an image of an object (object, phenomenon) that does not exist in real life. Imagination can be:

The image of the final result of real objective activity;

a picture of one's own behavior in conditions of complete informational uncertainty;

the image of a situation that resolves problems that are relevant to a given person, the real overcoming of which is not possible in the near future.

Imagination is included in the cognitive activity of the subject, which necessarily has its own object. A.N. Leontiev wrote that "The object of activity acts in two ways: firstly - in its independent existence, as subjugating and transforming the activity of the subject, secondarily - as an image of the object, as a product of the mental reflection of its property, which is carried out as a result of the activity of the subject and cannot be realized otherwise" . .

The selection in the subject of its specific properties necessary for solving the problem determines such a characteristic of the image as its partiality, i.e. dependence of perception, ideas, thinking, on what a person needs - on his needs, motives, attitudes, emotions. “It is very important to emphasize here that such “partiality” is itself objectively determined and is expressed not in the adequacy of the image (although it can be expressed in it), but that it allows one to actively penetrate into reality.”

The combination in the imagination of the subject contents of the images of two objects is associated, as a rule, with a change in the forms of representation of reality. Starting from the properties of reality, the imagination cognizes them, reveals their essential characteristics through their transfer to other objects, which fix the work of the productive imagination. This is expressed in metaphor, symbolism, characterizing the imagination.

According to E.V. Ilyenkov, "The essence of imagination lies in the ability to "grasp" the whole before the part, in the ability to build a complete image on the basis of a single hint, the tendency to build a complete image." "A distinctive feature of the imagination is a kind of departure from reality, when a new image is built on the basis of a separate sign of reality, and not just the existing ideas are reconstructed, which is typical for the functioning of the internal plan of action."

Imagination is a necessary element of human creative activity, which is expressed in the construction of the image of the products of labor, and ensures the creation of a program of behavior in cases where the problem situation is also characterized by uncertainty. Depending on the various circumstances that characterize the problem situation, the same task can be solved both with the help of imagination and with the help of thinking.

From this we can conclude that the imagination works at that stage of cognition, when the uncertainty of the situation is very high. Fantasy allows you to "jump" through some stages of thinking and still imagine the final result.

Imagination processes have an analytic-synthetic character. Its main tendency is the transformation of representations (images), which ultimately ensures the creation of a model of a situation that is obviously new, that has not arisen before. Analyzing the mechanism of imagination, it must be emphasized that its essence is the process of transforming ideas, creating new images based on existing ones. Imagination, fantasy is a reflection of reality in new, unexpected, unusual combinations and connections.

So, 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.

Imagination and thinking are intertwined in such a way that it can be difficult to distinguish between them; both of these processes are involved in any creative activity, creativity is always subordinated to the creation of something new, unknown. Operating with existing knowledge in the process of fantasizing implies their mandatory inclusion in the system of new relationships, as a result of which new knowledge may arise. This shows: "... the circle closes... Cognition (thinking) stimulates the imagination (creating a transformation model), which (the model) is then verified and refined by thinking," writes A.D. Dudetsky.

According to L.D. Stolyarenko, several types of imagination can be distinguished, the main ones being passive and active. The passive, in turn, is divided into voluntary (dreaming, dreams) and involuntary (hypnotic state, fantasy in dreams). Active imagination includes artistic, creative, critical, recreative, and anticipatory.

Imagination can be of four main types:

Active imagination - is characterized by the fact that, using it, a person, at his own request, by an effort of will, causes appropriate images in himself.

Active imagination is a sign of a creative type of personality that constantly tests its inner capabilities, its knowledge is not static, but continuously recombines, leads to new results, giving the individual emotional reinforcement for new searches, the creation of new material and spiritual values. Her mental activity is supraconscious, intuitive.

Passive imagination lies in the fact that its images arise spontaneously, in addition to the will and desire of a person. Passive imagination can be unintentional and intentional. Unintentional passive imagination occurs with a weakening of consciousness, psychosis, disorganization of mental activity, in a semi-drowsy and sleepy state. With deliberate passive imagination, a person arbitrarily forms images of escape from reality-dreams.

The unreal world created by the individual is an attempt to replace unfulfilled hopes, make up for heavy losses, and ease mental trauma. This type of imagination indicates a deep intrapersonal conflict.

There is also a distinction between the reproducing, or reproductive, and the transforming, or productive imagination.

The task of reproductive imagination is to reproduce reality as it is, and although there is also an element of fantasy, such imagination is more like perception or memory than creativity. Thus, a direction in art called naturalism, as well as partly realism, can be correlated with reproductive imagination.

Productive imagination is distinguished by the fact that in it reality is consciously constructed by a person, and not just mechanically copied or recreated, although at the same time it is still creatively transformed in the image.

Imagination has a subjective side associated with the individual and personal characteristics of a person (in particular, with his dominant hemisphere of the brain, type of nervous system, features of thinking, etc.). In this regard, people differ in:

brightness of images (from the phenomena of a clear "vision" of images to the poverty of ideas);

by the depth of processing of images of reality in the imagination (from complete unrecognizability of the imaginary image to primitive differences from the real original);

by the type of the dominant channel of imagination (for example, by the predominance of auditory or visual images of the imagination).

Imagination and the problem situation.

Imagination, or fantasy, like thinking, is one of the higher cognitive processes in which the specifically human character of activity is clearly revealed. Without imagining the finished result of labor, one cannot set to work. In the view of the expected result with the help of fantasy fundamental difference between human labor and the instinctive behavior of animals. Any work process necessarily involves imagination. It acts as a necessary side of artistic, design, scientific, literary, musical, in general, any creative activity. Strictly speaking, in order to make a simple table in an artisanal way, imagination is no less necessary than for writing an opera aria or a story: one must imagine in advance what shape, height, length and width the table will be; how the legs will be fastened, how it will meet its purpose as a dining, laboratory or writing table - in a word, before starting work, you need to see this table as if ready.

Imagination- it is a necessary element of creativityhuman being, expressed in the construction of the image ofducts of labor, as well as ensuring the creation of a programbehavior when the problem situation isbrimming with uncertainty. At the same time, imagination can act as a means of creating images that do not program vigorous activity, but replace it.

The first and most important purpose of imagination as a mental process is that it allows present the result of work before it begins, represent not only the final product of labor (for example, a table in its finished form as a finished product), but also its intermediate products(in this case, those parts that must be sequentially manufactured in order to assemble the table). Consequently, the imagination orients a person in the process of activity - it creates a mental model of the final or intermediate products of labor, which contributes to their substantive embodiment.

Imagination is closely related to thinking. Like thinking, it allows you to foresee the future.

What is common between thinking and fantasy, and what are the differences between them? Just like thinking, imagination arises in a problematic situation, i.e. when new solutions need to be found; like thinking, it is motivated by the needs of the individual. The real process of satisfying needs may be preceded by an illusory, imaginary satisfaction of needs, that is, a vivid, vivid representation of the situation in which these needs can be satisfied. But the anticipatory reflection of reality, carried out in the processes of fantasy, occurs in specific form, in the form of bright performances, while the leading reflection in the processes of thinking occurs by operating concepts allowing a generalized and indirect knowledge of the world.

Thus, in the problem situation that begins the activity, there are two systems of advancing consciousnessresults of this activity: an organized system of images(views) and organized system of concepts. The possibility of choosing an image underlies the imagination, the possibility of a new combination of concepts underlies thinking. Often such work goes on “two floors” at once, since the systems of images and concepts are closely connected - the choice, for example, of a method of action, is carried out through logical reasoning, with which vivid ideas of how the action will be carried out are organically merged.

Considering the similarities and differences between thinking and imagination, it should be noted that a problem situation can be characterized by greater or lesser uncertainty. If the initial data of a task, for example, a scientific problem, are known, then the course of its solution is subject mainly to the laws of thinking. Another picture is observed when the problem situation is characterized by significant uncertainty, the initial data are difficult to accurately analyze. In this case, the mechanisms of imagination come into play. For example, some uncertainty of the initial data affects the work of the writer. It is not for nothing that the role of fantasy is so great in literary creativity, when the writer traces the fate of his characters in his imagination. He has to deal with a much greater degree of uncertainty than a designer or engineer, since the laws of the human psyche and behavior are in many ways more complex, less known than the laws of physics.

Depending on the various circumstances that characterize the problem situation, the same task can be solved both with the help of imagination and with the help of thinking. There are reasons to conclude that imaginationworks at that stage of cognition, when the uncertainty situation is very large. The more familiar, precise and definite the situation is, the less space it gives to fantasy. It is quite obvious that for that area of ​​phenomena where the basic laws have been elucidated, there is no need to use the imagination. However, in the presence of very approximate information about the situation, on the contrary, it is difficult to get an answer with the help of thinking - fantasy comes into play here.

The value of imagination lies in the fact that it allows you to make decisions and find a way out in a problem situation, even in the absence of the necessary completeness of knowledge that is necessary for thinking. Fantasy allows you to “jump” over some stages of thinking and still imagine the final result. But this is also the weakness of such a solution to the problem. The solutions outlined by fantasy are often insufficiently precise and not rigorous. However the need to exist and actto play in an environment with incomplete information led to the appearance of an apparatus of imagination in a person. Since there will always be unexplored areas in the world around us, this apparatus of imagination will always be useful.

Types of imagination.

Imagination is characterized by activity, effectiveness. At the same time, the apparatus of the imagination can be used and is being used not only as a condition for the creative activity of the individual, aimed at transforming the environment. Imagination in some circumstances can act as activity substitution her surrogate. In this case, a person temporarily goes into the realm of fantastic ideas that are far from reality in order to hide there from tasks that seem insoluble to him, from the need to act, from difficult living conditions, from the consequences of his mistakes, etc. Having created the image of Manilov, N.V. Gogol generally portrayed people who see a convenient opportunity to get away from activity in fruitless daydreaming. Here, fantasy creates images that do not materialize, outlines programs of behavior that are not implemented and often cannot be implemented. This form of imagination is called passive imagination.

A person can cause passive imagination intentionally: this kind images of fantasy, deliberately caused, but not connected with the will aimed at bringing them to life, are called dreams. All people tend to dream about something joyful, pleasant, tempting. In daydreams, the connection between fantasy products and needs is easily revealed. But if in the processes of imagination a person is dominated by dreams, then this is a defect in the development of the personality, it indicates its passivity. If a person is passive, if he does not fight for a better future, and his real life is difficult and joyless, then he often creates for himself an illusory, invented life, where his needs are fully satisfied, where he succeeds in everything, where he occupies a position that he cannot hope now and in real life.

Passive imagination can also arise unintentionally. This occurs mainly when the activity of consciousness, the second signal system, is weakened, when a person is temporarily inactive, in a semi-drowsy state, in a state of passion, in sleep (dreams), with pathological disorders of consciousness (hallucinations), etc.

If a passive imagination can be subdivided into deliberate and unintentional then active imagination may be creative and recreative.

Imagination, which is based on the creation of images,corresponding to the description is called recreating. When reading both educational and fiction literature, when studying geographical maps and historical descriptions, it constantly turns out to be necessary to recreate with the help of the imagination what is displayed in these books, maps and stories.

Many schoolchildren have a habit of skipping or skimming through books describing nature, characterizing an interior or cityscape, or verbally portraying a character. As a result, they do not provide food for the recreating imagination and extremely impoverish the artistic perception and emotional development of their personality - fantasy does not have time to unfold bright and colorful pictures in front of them. The study of geographical maps serves as a peculiar school of the recreating imagination. The habit of wandering around the map and imagining different places helps to see them correctly in reality. Spatial imagination, necessary in the study of stereometry, develops by carefully examining drawings and natural three-dimensional bodies from various angles.

creative imagination, as opposed to recreating beforebelieves the independent creation of new images thatare realized in original and valuable products of activity. The creative imagination that arose in labor remains an integral part of technical, artistic and any other creativity, taking the form of an active and purposeful operation of visual representations in search of ways to satisfy needs.

The value of a human personality largely depends on what types of imagination prevail in its structure. If a teenager and a young man's creative imagination, realized in a specific activity, prevails over passive, empty daydreaming, then this indicates a high level of personality development.

Imagination is a mental process by which images are created that a person has never perceived before. There are four types of imagination representations:

1) images of what is in reality, for example, a person represents the Sahara desert, which he has never been to, but which really exists;

2) historical images, for example, you can imagine what a prehistoric man or a saber-toothed tiger looked like;

3) fabulous images: Baba Yaga, Zmey-Gorynych, etc.;

4) images of the future, for example, what a car of the XXII century looks like.

Imagination images can be created in various ways. The most common are the following methods.

1. Agglutination is a combination of any qualities, properties, parts into a single, often bizarre image, sometimes very far from reality.

For example, the connection of the upper part of the body of a man and the lower part of the horse were embodied in the image of a centaur, and, having placed the hut on chicken paws, they received the dwelling of Baba Yaga. Most often, this technique is used in myths and fairy tales.

2. Emphasis - highlighting in the existing image of any part, detail and raising it to the rank of dominant.

The method is most often used in cartoons, cartoons.

Typification is the most complex, sometimes creative technique, expressed in the fact that the most characteristic, significant qualities and properties are distinguished from specific images and a new image is created on their basis.

Very often this technique is used by writers, creating images of literary characters.

It helps out in situations where it is impossible, difficult or simply inappropriate to perform practical actions.

Thus, without imagination, progress in any field of human activity would not be possible.

The following types of imagination are distinguished:

1) active (voluntary) - passive (involuntary);

2) aroductive (creative) - reproductive (recreating).

Passive imagination arises without volitional efforts and without conscious intentions on the part of a person.

Dreams are the most common form of passive imagination.

Active imagination occurs when new ideas or images are created by a person's intention.

Reproductive (recreating) imagination is based on the reconstruction of new images in accordance with the existing description, scheme, etc.

Productive imagination - new images and ideas are created as a result of independent creative activity.

However, most often it is not possible to draw a clear line between reproductive and creative imagination.


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