What Is Thinking? Here Are 6 Facts

1.Reason, the ability to think, is considered distinctive for the human being. Some elementary thinking processes are accomplished also by some animals, like chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. Tests showing their capacity to solve problems, like getting to the food that is not easily accessible, shows that the notions of concept and idea are not totally strange for them. An idea is correlated to another and this way the desired result is achieved.

Human beings possess this ability at a much more complex level, enabling its supremacy over the animal world. Humans are physically weak, but the mental power overcompensates this.

It is almost impossible to define thinking, and this is approached by philosophy, physiology and psychology. Advanced forms of thinking lead to scientific discoveries and great pieces of art.

2.A type of thinking, assuming the concepts, has as purpose the achievement of a satisfactory explanation for observed phenomena and events, like the attempts of the scientists to find a valid theory for various phenomena and the forensic investigations for finding the criminal.

Another type of thinking is necessary for taking decisions in work or social context. It supposes foreseeing the effects of your own actions and of the others and to evaluate the consequences.

In solving a problem, firstly, the causes must be evaluated, then the solution can be looked for, step by step, through the method of the logical analysis or perspicacity, which requires a less conventional approach.

The imaginative thinking means a juxtaposition between experiences and old and new concepts for creating interesting and useful ideas.

3.Concepts in thinking are an extension of their use in perception. The concept of an individual about a flower is connected to the objects said to him to be flowers. If the only flowers he has seen are roses, then only what resembles a rose is a flower to him. This way, an iris would not be a flower for him. By modifying the concept to comprise all the common characters to roses and irises, the concept is generalized so that in the future, the person will recognize other types of flowers, too. Interestingly, when chimps were taught through sign language to recognize several type of flowers, they could recognize flowers they had not seen before.

The concept forming is constant in the case of the children learning to classify newly encountered objects. The experience develops a large array of general concepts. When finding completely new situations and objects, it is necessary to analyze and combine several concepts to get a satisfactory explanation for the observations or events. This is thinking. The new combination of concepts is the solution to the problem, turned into a generalized concept, stocked in the mind and used in future similar situations.

4.We take decisions, which are varied, from regular ones, like choosing the menu at the restaurant, to more complex and important ones, like movements during a chess game, or some with deep impact on your life, like choosing a career or a spouse.

Logic decisions suppose evaluating all the consequences that may appear, all the alternatives, and estimating the best solution. The more complex the decision, the more unknown factors could influence the consequences and the harder turns to choose the most favorable solution. The most complicated is to evaluate advantage of different natures: how to choose between receiving $ 1 million and living 10 years more?

Computers revealed many facts about logical decisions, when put to play chess or other games. The computer has at its disposal an array of 7-8 possible movements which it analyzes when it is its turn. Then, it chooses 7-8 possible movements that the partner could hypothetically make, and depending on this, it chooses 7-8 movements it could make, following the hypothetical movements of its partner. This forecast of the game can comprise 4-5 movements, depending on the computer's performances. The computer evaluates the result of any possible movement, estimates the strategic advantage conferred by each making an inverse intercession to determine the initial movement, which would generate the most advantageous result.

The same happens with humans, only that our opponent is often not a person, but the world. The capacity of the humans to evaluate all the possible results of their actions is much more limited than that of a computer. A person can make normally a complete analysis for 3-4 consecutive movements. The effort and time required by taking the correct logical decisions make many times people to renounce to this type of approach and base on experience, intuition or random. On the other hand, humans' perspicacity allows them to see useless combinations of various actions, that could not be detected through a purely logical approach by the computer. This explains why performance computers cannot beat great chess masters.

5.In some situations, all the variants seem the same. The theory of the probabilities helps people take the best decision in this case. Decisions that look extremely complicated can be simplified by marking various consequences as positive and negative, with pros and cons.

But the logical thinking is inflexible and cannot solve all the concepts. Collateral thinking uses better the configuring behavior of the thinking. Collateral thinking has already been used for solving industrial problems and to streamline the educational process. One example: a company had insufficient elevators in the building. The employees fell often on the slippery stairs. The managers found two solutions: more rapid elevators or more elevators, both extremely costly. But the collateral thinking came with a cheaper and more effective solution: mirrors on the stairs. The employees were so preoccupied to watch themselves in the mirrors that descended the stairs slowly, decreasing the risk of accidents.

6.Satisfactory solutions are sometimes found unconsciously. Many persons said that after focusing for hours on an issue, the solution came after the problem was put aside in the subconscious for hours, days and even more. The solution can come as a sudden revelation or symbolically in a dream.

In this case, it is hard to delimit scientific thinking from artistic creation. Of course, scientists and artists must pass a lot of time studying the problems they face, no matter if for building a theoretical model of the universe or a symphony. But many of these people say that the "creative jump", a moment's intuition, solved their problem.