What is imagination in psychology? Active and passive imagination. Types of imagination in psychology

The list of images that a person operates with during his life includes not only objects or phenomena that exist in objective reality. It may also be something that was not previously perceived directly by the individual: the distant past or future, places where he has never been and will not visit, living beings that do not exist in the Universe. Answering the question what is imagination, the main characteristic of which is amazing for Everyday life images, we can say that this is going beyond real world both in time and in space.

However, everyday and scientific definitions human fantasies vary greatly. In the first case, this is only everything unreal, not corresponding to the reality around us, and therefore not endowed with any practical significance. Scientists do not quite share the opinion of ordinary people about what imagination is. Defining it from a scientific point of view covers all aspects of an individual’s cultural life and provides an incentive for the development of artistic, scientific and technical creativity.

About the phenomenon of imagination

Man is the only thing Living being on our planet, which tends to fantasize, that is, to reflect the future and act in accordance with the expected (imaginary) situation, using its sensations, perception and thinking.

Speaking about what imagination is in biology, we can say that these are representations of any future events, which are based on the creation of new images, processed as a result of perception, thinking and knowledge about the world of a particular individual, which were obtained in previous life situations. The essence of any fantasy is a transformation in which there are objects and phenomena that have no points of contact with reality. It is this phenomenon that is most important in the process of becoming a person as an active subject.

About thinking and imagination

Dreams

These products of human imagination are aimed at the future desired by man. They generally contain fairly realistic and, as a rule, feasible plans regarding study, work, career and family. This form of imagination is typical for young people who have a most of life.

Dreams

This peculiar type of fantasy is characterized by isolation from objective reality, and in most cases it will never be possible to bring images from them to life. They are a cross between hallucinations and dreams, but it should be remembered that, unlike the former, dreams are products of the activity of normal human consciousness.

Dreams

Dreams have always been of particular interest to specialists who study brain activity. Today, scientists tend to believe that they reflect the process of processing various information by the consciousness, and dreams are not only functionally related to this activity, but can also contain human dreams and daydreams, as well as new valuable ideas and discoveries. Here it is appropriate to recall the Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, who, according to legend, saw periodic table elements, later named after him.

Involuntary fantasies

Speaking about what imagination is, experts one way or another connect it with the human will. In its involuntary type, images are created as a result of the activity of a weakened consciousness. This may be half-asleep or a state of sleep, as well as some mental disorders. The process in this case is not controlled in any way and is completely unconscious.

Free imagination

This type is referred to as conscious, directed activity, in which the individual fully understands its motives and goals. It is characterized by the deliberate creation of images, and arbitrariness and active imagination are combined different ways. Vivid examples of passive arbitrary imagination are dreams, and active is a long, purposeful search, characteristic of the work of writers, artists and the work of inventors.

Recreating Imagination

This type is based on the creation of images of objects that were not previously perceived by the individual in a complete form, despite the fact that he has an idea of ​​similar objects and their individual elements. Probably everyone knows well what spatial imagination is. But not everyone understands that it is recreative. All images are formed in reality through drawings, drawings and other similar diagrams using the knowledge available regarding them. The elements are more flexible, diverse, dynamic and are reproductive in nature.

Creative imagination

It is the process of the creator’s independent creation of new, unlike anything else, images embodied in the original results of various types of activities. At the same time, the creator’s indirect reliance on his past life experience is minimal, and only the flight of his imagination plays the main role.

Realistic imagination

Occurs when one believes in the possibility of bringing the created images to life. Characterized by anticipation of the future, an ideal presentation of the result before it is achieved. There are many examples in literature of how an image or situation, born only from the writer’s imagination and considered unrealistic, is exactly repeated in objective reality.

Sociological imagination

It is difficult to argue with the fact that the life of an individual cannot be separated from the life of society. Speaking about what sociological imagination is, we can say that it is the ability to recognize the interconnection of everything that happens in reality, taking into account structural, cultural and historical conditions. This type also considers actions performed by both individual and collective social actors, forming a complex and heterogeneous human society.

Having talked in detail about what imagination is, highlighting it different kinds and having described their features, we can safely say that none of the many types of creativity can be imagined without an element of fantasy, be it science, literature, painting. In a general sense, this is an anticipation of what does not yet exist, but which, perhaps, will become part of our lives. Imagination is directly related to intuition, conjecture, insight. Every person, to one degree or another, is inclined to fantasize, but we should not forget about real life, so that dreams do not become painful hallucinations, and the castles in the air do not collapse in the gray everyday life.

Lyubov Uvarova
What is imagination?

Imagination- a mental cognitive process consisting in the creation of new images, ideas, emotional and sensory states by processing previous experience L Afonkina, Uruntaeva)

Imagination- synthesis of the stock of impressions, ideas, experienced knowledge and the creation of new images and fantasies. (Bardier, Romazan, Cherednikova)

Imagination, fantasy is a reflection of reality in new, unexpected and unusual combinations and connections.

These definitions are taken from different sources, but they all talk about the creation of new images based on existing ideas of impressions, knowledge, etc. Moreover, highlight the moment in the situation when only imagination doesn't show up, for example, memory or thinking is impossible, because mental processes take place simultaneously: at every moment, more than ten billion nerve cells of the human brain create a single symphony" of his mental life.

Because the imagination is a function of the cortex cerebral hemispheres brain, then we should immediately say about the influence imagination for the operation of many systems human body. Some observations on people who are rich imagination and impressionability, give Interesting Facts about the influence imagination on the course of physiological processes:

Flaubert clearly felt the taste of arsenic in his mouth when he wrote the scene of the poisoning of Emma Bovary, and Voltaire fell ill every time on the anniversary of St. Bartholomew's Night - thoughts of those killed innocently caused him to have an attack of fever.

The word of an authoritative person or a careless doctor can cause nervous disorders or even serious illnesses. This may also include pedagogical tactlessness, the wrong act of a teacher or educator.

DEVELOPMENT FEATURES IMAGINATIONS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Preschool age, when the child’s leading activity is play, is characterized by rapid development imagination. The very first signs imagination can be noticed after one and a half years, when a child examines a picture and begins to recognize the depicted object, because a drawing is still only a sign of a real object, its substitute, and imagination here something that does not quite correspond to reality is completed. Of course it is passive imagination, after all, a child does not create anything new, but such recognition - the most important step on the way of its formation.

And yet the roots imagination one should look for actions with objects from which objective play is born. A necessary element games are imaginary situation, introduced using the words “as if,” and the child’s free transformation of accumulated ideas, not constrained by the rules of logic, however, to a certain extent limit: Can imagine that the raisin is the puck, and the spoon is the stick, but vice versa is no longer the case, because moving the spoon with the raisin is at least inconvenient. This means that internal logic still exists, and the main condition here is the ability to perform the same actions with a substitute object as with a real object.

With the development of speech, the nature of the creation also changes. imaginary situation: the child moves on to supports of a different kind - a syllable. Throughout preschool age there is a gradual transformation imagination child from external activities with objects into the internal - verbal. Speech and communication help children imagine objects that they have not seen before. Numerous studies have shown that delays in speech development also affect the development imagination: lead to its lag and impoverishment. And the wealth of children imagination is only visible: a child who has never seen an elephant can easily imagine that the elephant is pink - this is the weakness of the child imagination. But in any case, you shouldn’t say that it’s not true that there are no pink elephants. You should always find out why the child says that and whether he knows what kind of elephants there really are.

Wealth imagination directly depends on the wealth of past experience, knowledge, and memory. Comparison of new knowledge and past experience, uncertainty of emerging situations includes work imagination-search process non-standard solutions homogeneous, similar problems. All this is related imagination with thinking, helps them fulfill the general cognitive function. And when for one reason or another imagination turns out to be underdeveloped in children, they begin to doubt even the existence of very real, but unusual things. K. Chukovsky wrote that when one of the children started talking about sharks in one of the schools shouted: "There are no sharks!"

Imagination and thinking, arising in sensory cognition, help the child to break away from a specific situation, look at the problem from different points of view, and in cases where thinking is powerless, it comes to his aid imagination. It helps the child fill the knowledge gap that does not allow him to solve the problem using thinking.

Speaking about developmental features imagination in preschool children, I especially want to emphasize that the child does not tolerate rude interference in his fantasies. Adults must be careful not to inadvertently destroy the fragile magical world created by the child in his own imagination.

A child's fantasies should be distinguished from children's lies. Fantasizing

always selfless and does not harm others. A lie is a deliberate distortion of reality in order to obtain some benefit. (to be praised, given candy, not scolded). A child’s fantasies, unlike lies, are more varied and are accompanied by positive emotions, because a child always fantasizes for pleasure.

For an older preschooler, unlike a younger one, thinking directs the work imagination. If a younger preschooler involuntarily distorts the signs and functions of objects due to a lack of knowledge and unformed critical thinking, then an older preschooler deliberately replaces reality with fiction, i.e. imagination acquires elements of arbitrariness. In this regard, the so-called changelings, to which all children gravitate, are very indicative. Four year old girl sings: "I'll give you a piece of milk and a jug of pie" (from Chukovsky). Changelings are a product children's imagination, constructed, like other images of fantasy, by rearranging familiar elements to achieve emotional comic affect. It is important that next to this deliberate distortion of reality there exists, as a standard, a correct idea of ​​the world, which refutes these absurdities, and thereby strengthens them even more.

Transition imagination from activity in need of external support, into independent internal activity - the most important condition development of artistic creativity (writing fairy tales, stories, poems, visual and constructive activities). It is the word that accompanies and precedes the creative process, merging into one. In the world of art, the artist’s creative imagination cannot only copy reality. She transforms it, and then not only people, but also birds, fish, plants and stones - everything around speaks to him.

In senior preschool age with the help of words and thanks imagination the child already knows how to plan an activity, a plan appears, achieving a goal or result causes significant difficulties, and the activity planned with the help of speech becomes more successful. The planning function of speech provides the planning function imagination, and inclusion in the process imagination words makes it conscious and voluntary.

Imagination provides the ability to look at a situation from another person’s perspective, the ability to put oneself in his place, to understand his thoughts and feelings. And this leads to the fact that the preschooler can already foresee the development of the situation and its continuation. At the same time, the child learns not only to sympathize with another, but also to help him.

In life there are many rules of behavior that must be strictly followed. Many of them are quite abstract and therefore difficult for the child to understand, and the child is not yet accustomed to detailed logical explanations. And this is where it comes to the rescue imagination, bright visual dynamic picture, situation:

You can get caught in the teeth of crocodiles!

They lurked on every platform,

And everyone who moves out is grabbed by the heels!

And they are dragged to the bottom of the African Nile.

Please, don't slide down the railing! (E. Tokmakova)

But here we should immediately make a reservation that it is necessary to observe reasonable limits of fiction, without intimidating the child, without causing fear in him.

The desire to protect yourself from negative emotions leads to the child imagining himself as big, strong, and generous. By using imagination he tries to transform not only the present, but also past: the broken cup became whole again, mom is not angry, the truck has been found. Thus, the baby seems to get rid of memories that hurt him, internal psychological discomfort, emotional stress, troubles. THAT. imagination runs here protective function-protects the individual from severe traumatic experiences

Literature:

Subbotsky E. B. A child discovers the world. y.: Education, 1991 Nikitin B. P. Steps of creativity, k.: Education, 1990 Polunina B. N. Art and children. M.: Education, 1962

Dyachenko O. M. About the main directions of development preschooler's imagination. Reader on child psychology. M. Institute of Practical Sciences. psychology, 1996.

Simanovsky A. Z. Development of creative thinking in children. -Yaroelael, "Academy of Development", 1996.

Kryazheva N. L Development of the emotional world of children. - Yaroslavl, "Academy of Development", 1996.

Uruntaeva G. A., Afonkina Yu. A. introducing kids to the environment peace: M.: Education: Educational literature, 1997.

Einon D. Creative a game: From birth to 10 years. M.: Pedagogika-Press, 1995.

What doesn't happen in the world? Ed. Dyachenko Dgaeva E. A. M,: 11 r. ,1991

Imagination is an area of ​​the human psyche that is often underestimated, but it can have a significant impact on real life- enrich it, deplete it, replace it with fruitless fantasy.

Essence and mechanism

- this is a productive activity of the psyche, in which new images are created based on the transformation of realistic ideas previously obtained in human experience. He may not have seen living dinosaurs or a time machine, may not have heard the sea surf or inhaled the aroma of the desert, but he can imagine it using familiar images.

Perception acts as material for fantasy. The original images are being processed. They highlight elements that can transform - become larger or smaller than real ones, combine in incredible combinations, change places, appear in unrealistic quantities.

This is how fantasy images of objects appear that could not be perceived: Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians or giants, a hut on chicken legs, Pegasus, the many-armed deity Shiva, the three-headed dragon, Odin’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Imagination can sharpen certain features - this is how caricature and grotesque arise.

Images can become diagrams when unimportant differences are erased, and the main properties are revealed very clearly. Emoticons - shining example schematic processing of the image.

Imagination typifies human characters, places, events. Elves, gnomes, orcs are types. Turgenev's young ladies and " tough nuts"Blockbusters are also types.

Then the images of the imagination are transformed, which gives rise to very complex fantasies.

The emotional component of imaginary images leads to unexpected, logically incomprehensible associations. Original combinations of human body parts, spaces, technical devices amaze viewers in the works of surrealists who rely on fantasy (S. Dali, R. Magritte, etc.).

The result of the activity of the imagination is the crystallization of the image in a visible, tangible product - a painting, an invention, an artistic text, a model, a program. Imagination doesn't always work full cycle. Dreamers move from fantasy to fantasy without ever bringing a single idea to life.

Functions

1. Prompting activity with the help of a bright, attractive image of its result, means and methods of implementation, generalized ideas and specific plans.
2. Regulation of behavior in uncertainty, problematic situation using images of alternative actions and their consequences.
3. Emotional self-regulation, autopsychotherapy, illusory satisfaction of needs. This function comes with the risk of escaping reality. Replacing reality with gaming images is one of the consequences of gambling addiction.
4. Organization of cognition - reconstruction of an object according to description, completion of missing elements, modeling.

Kinds

Active imagination strengthens the motivation of activity and a person transforms reality - invents, embodies an artistic concept, brings closer the future he dreams of.

• Active reconstruction builds an image according to the description.
• Active creativity builds an image of something that has not yet existed.

All culture is created by creative imagination.

Passive imagination undermines the motivation of real behavior, the images reproduce themselves. Dreams and projections multiply and do not become reality. A time-out is necessary, but the pause can drag on, and life will pass as if in a dream.

• Passive intentionality is controlled by a person who himself evokes memories, dreams, and fantasies.
• Passive unintentional controls a person when he accepts delusional, dreamlike images as reality.

Imagination and the desire to achieve

The first three years of life, a child is under the influence of direct impressions from objects accessible to perception. Then imagination is formed - the ability to mentally see missing objects and situations of manipulating them, transform them, desire or be afraid.

From this point on, two trends emerge. One is to persistently master objects presented in the imagination - getting a coveted toy, a trip to the zoo, favorite hobby. Another is to give up achievement and make do with imagination. Their balance depends on the family environment and the already established personality traits of the child.

Ways to develop imagination

1. Enriching the experience of perception, because the imagination operates with material obtained from the perception of real objects.
2. Speech development, because it allows you to name the elements of the image, rearrange them, change places, enlarge, multiply, formalize the plan, and exchange ideas. By playing with words, the child creates new images.
3. Support for spontaneous and organized children's creativity - drawing, simple music playing, inventing fairy tales, fables.
4. Support and enrichment of children's play, because the game occupies an intermediate position between reality and imagination, providing experience for building an adaptive connection between imagination and reality.
5. Methodological techniques - word games, drawing pictures, composing stories, using and combining unusual techniques, handicraft materials, etc.

Imagination will help you plan, anticipate risks, be inspired to take action, find non-trivial solutions (see reproductive imagination), empathize, and create. The main thing is that it does not replace real life.

the process of transition from the reflection of a real object to the construction of an image, subordinate to subjective dynamics, and the result of which, according to its content, is considered in the setting of “reflection” (given a realistic status).

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

IMAGINATION

fantasy, mental process, which consists in creating images of existing and non-existent objects, which in this moment are not perceived. V.'s work is carried out on the basis of memory processing of past perceptions and experiences. V. can be involuntary and voluntary. Involuntary V. is most often caused by unsatisfied desires, which contribute to the imagination of those situations, real or unreal, in which these desires can be satisfied. In arbitrary V., an image is developed with a predetermined goal, for example, a situation is imagined in which a certain activity will be performed. There is also a distinction between passive and active V. Passive V. is devoid of effectiveness; it is characterized by the creation of images and plans that are not implemented. In this case, V. acts as a surrogate for activity, with the help of which a person evades the need to act. Passive V. can be intentional or unintentional. Unintentional passive V. is observed when the activity of consciousness is weakened, during sleep, or in pathological disorders of consciousness. Intentional passive V. produces specially created images (dreams) that are not associated with the will, which could contribute to their implementation. The predominance of dreams in V. indicates certain defects in personality development. Active V. can be creative (productive) and recreating (reproductive). Recreating V. is based on the creation of images that correspond to the description, for example, when reading educational and fiction. Creative V. assumes self-creation images that are realized in original and valuable products of activity; it is an integral part of technical, artistic and any other creativity. A special type of creative vision is a dream, the creation of images of the desired future that are not directly embodied in one activity or another. The first manifestations of V. date back to 2.5-3 years. At this age, the child begins to act in an imaginary situation, primarily in object play. His V. is still unstable, does not obey a specific task. At an older age, V. develops into role-playing game, providing great opportunities for children's creativity. The first attempts at verbal creativity, construction, etc. appear. Some features of V. are manifested in all types of activities, for example, in literary and musical creativity, in visual arts, etc. On the one hand, this is the ability to flexibly use one’s experience and find various combinations of its elements. On the other hand, V. allows the child not only to create new images, but also to express his attitude towards them. It is these general abilities that characterize the child’s level of creativity. The older preschooler acquires the ability to subordinate his V. to a specific plan. The adult’s task is to help the child realize his plans and encourage his creative activity. The school makes demands mainly on memory, thinking, and often the child’s intelligence, having not received proper development in preschool childhood, gradually fades and does not always appear at an older age. See also False

Question 46. Definition, types, functions of imagination. The role of imagination in solving cognitive and personality problems. Development of imagination. Imagination and creativity.

Imagination- this is the mental process of creating new images, ideas and thoughts based on existing experience, by restructuring a person’s ideas.

Imagination is closely connected with all other cognitive processes and occupies a special place in human cognitive activity. Thanks to this process, a person can anticipate the course of events, foresee the results of his actions and actions. It allows you to create behavior programs in situations characterized by uncertainty.

From a physiological point of view, imagination is the process of formation of new systems of temporary connections as a result of complex analytical and synthetic activity of the brain.

In the process of imagination, systems of temporary nerve connections seem to disintegrate and unite into new complexes, groups of nerve cells are connected in a new way.

The physiological mechanisms of imagination are located in the cortex and deeper parts of the brain.

Imagination - this is the process of mental transformation of reality, the ability to construct new holistic images of reality by processing the content of existing practical, sensory, intellectual and emotional-semantic experience.

Types of imagination

By subject – emotional, figurative, verbal-logical

By mode of activity - active and passive, intentional and unintentional

By the nature of the images - abstract and concrete

According to the results, it is reconstructive (mental reproduction of images of objects that actually exist) and creative (creation of images of objects that do not currently exist).

Types of imagination:

- active - when a person, through an effort of will, evokes appropriate images in himself. Active imagination is a creative, recreating phenomenon. Creative active imagination arises as a result of work, independently creates images that are expressed in original and valuable products of activity. This is the basis of any creativity;

- passive - when images arise by themselves, do not depend on desires and will and are not brought to life.

Passive imagination is:

- involuntary imagination . Most simple form imagination – those images that arise without special intention or effort on our part (floating clouds, reading an interesting book). Any interesting, exciting teaching usually evokes a vivid involuntary imagination. One type of involuntary imagination is dreams . N.M. Sechenov believed that dreams are an unprecedented combination of experienced impressions.

- arbitrary imagination manifests itself in cases where new images or ideas arise as a result of a person’s special intention to imagine something specific, concrete.

Among the various types and forms of voluntary imagination we can distinguish recreating imagination, creative imagination and dream. Recreating imagination manifests itself when a person needs to recreate a representation of an object that matches its description as fully as possible. For example, when reading books, we imagine heroes, events, etc. Creative imagination is characterized by the fact that a person transforms ideas and creates new ones not according to an existing model, but by independently outlining the contours of the created image and choosing the necessary materials for it. Creative imagination, like recreating, is closely related to memory, since in all cases of its manifestation a person uses his previous experience. A dream is a type of imagination that involves the independent creation of new images. At the same time, a dream has a number of differences from creative imagination. 1) in a dream a person always recreates the image of what he wants, but not always in creativity; 2) a dream is a process of imagination that is not included in creative activity, i.e. not immediately and directly providing an objective product in the form of a work of art, a scientific discovery, etc. 3) a dream is always aimed at future activities, i.e. A dream is an imagination aimed at a desired future.

Functions of the imagination.

In human life, imagination 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 perception, 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 in the mind, manipulating images. Finally, fifth function is planning and programming activities, drawing up such programs, assessing their correctness, and the implementation process. With the help of imagination, we can control many psychophysiological states of the body and tune it to upcoming activities. There are also known facts indicating that with the help of imagination, purely by will, a person can influence organic processes: change the rhythm of breathing, pulse rate, blood pressure, body temperature.

Imagination carries the following functions (as defined by R. S. Nemov):

- representation of reality in images;

- emotional regulation states;

Voluntary regulation of cognitive processes and human states:

- formation of internal action plan;

- planning and programming activities;

- psychophysiological management state of the body.

The role of imagination in solving cognitive and personality problems.

Imagination is closely related to thinking:

Like thinking, it allows you to foresee the future;

Imagination and thinking arise in a problem situation;

Imagination and thinking are motivated by the needs of the individual;

In the process of activity, imagination appears in unity with thinking;

The basis of imagination is the ability to choose an image; thinking is based on the possibility of a new combination of concepts.

The main purpose of fantasy is to present an alternative to reality. As such, fantasy serves two main purposes:

It stimulates creativity, allowing you to create something that does not exist (yet), and

It acts as a balancing mechanism for the soul, offering the individual a means of self-help to achieve emotional balance (self-healing). Fantasy is also used for clinical purposes; the results of projective psychological tests and techniques are based on fantasy projections (as is the case in the TAT). In addition, in various psychotherapeutic approaches, fantasy is assigned the role of an exploratory or therapeutic tool.

Development of imagination

It is very difficult to determine any specific age limits that characterize the dynamics of imagination development. There are examples of extremely early development of imagination. For example, Mozart began composing music at the age of four, Repin and Serov could draw well at the age of six. On the other hand, the late development of imagination does not mean that this process will be at a low level in more mature years. History knows of cases where great people, for example Einstein, were not distinguished by a developed imagination in childhood, but over time they began to be talked about as geniuses.

Despite the difficulty of determining the stages of development of imagination in humans, certain patterns in its formation can be identified. Thus, the first manifestations of imagination are closely related to the process of perception. For example, children aged one and a half years are not yet able to listen to even the simplest stories or fairy tales; they are constantly distracted or fall asleep, but listen with pleasure to stories about what they themselves have experienced. This phenomenon clearly shows the connection between imagination and perception. A child listens to a story about his experiences because he clearly imagines what is being said. The connection between perception and imagination continues at the next stage of development, when the child begins to process received impressions in his games, modifying previously perceived objects in his imagination. The chair turns into a cave or an airplane, the box into a car. However, it should be noted that the first images of a child’s imagination are always associated with activity. The child does not dream, but embodies the processed image in his activities, even though this activity is a game.

An important stage in the development of imagination is associated with the age when a child masters speech. Speech allows the child to include in the imagination not only specific images, but also more abstract ideas and concepts. Moreover, speech allows the child to move from expressing images of imagination in activity to their direct expression in speech.

The stage of mastering speech is accompanied by an increase in practical experience and the development of attention, which allows the child to more easily identify individual parts of an object, which he already perceives as independent and with which he increasingly operates in his imagination. However, the synthesis occurs with significant distortions of reality. Due to the lack of sufficient experience and insufficient critical thinking, the child cannot create an image that is close to reality. The main feature of this stage is the involuntary nature of the emergence of imagination. Most often, images of imagination are formed in a child of this age involuntarily, in accordance with with the situation he is in.

The next stage in the development of imagination is associated with the emergence of its active forms. At this stage, the process of imagination becomes voluntary. The emergence of active forms of imagination is initially associated with stimulating initiative on the part of an adult. For example, when an adult asks a child to do something (draw a tree, build a house out of cubes, etc.), he activates the imagination process. In order to fulfill the request of an adult, the child must first create, or recreate, a certain image in his imagination. Moreover, this process of imagination, by its nature, is already voluntary, since the child tries to control it. Later, the child begins to use his own imagination without any adult participation. This leap in the development of imagination is reflected, first of all, in the nature of the child’s games. They become focused and story-driven. The things surrounding the child become not just stimuli for the development of objective activity, but act as material for the embodiment of images of his imagination. A child at the age of four or five begins to draw, build, sculpt, rearrange things and combine them in accordance with his plan.

Another major shift in imagination occurs during school age. The need to understand educational material determines the activation of the process of recreating imagination. In order to assimilate the knowledge that is given at school, the child actively uses his imagination, which causes the progressive development of the ability to process images of perception into images of imagination.

Another reason for the rapid development of imagination during school years is that during the learning process the child actively acquires new and diverse ideas about objects and phenomena of the real world. These views serve necessary basis for imagination and stimulate the creative activity of the student.

The degree of development of imagination is characterized by the vividness of images and the depth with which the data of past experience is processed, as well as the novelty and meaningfulness of the results of this processing. The strength and vividness of imagination is easily assessed when the product of imagination is implausible and bizarre images, for example, among the authors of fairy tales. Poor development of imagination is expressed in a low level of processing of ideas. Weak imagination entails difficulties in solving mental problems that require the ability to visualize a specific situation. With an insufficient level of imagination development, a rich and emotionally diverse life is impossible.

People differ most clearly in the degree of vividness of their imagination. If we assume that there is a corresponding scale, then at one pole there will be people with extremely high levels of vividness of the images of the imagination, which they experience as visions, and at the other pole there will be people with extremely pale ideas. As a rule, we find a high level of development of imagination among people engaged in creative work - writers, artists, musicians, scientists.

Significant differences between people are revealed regarding the nature of the dominant type of imagination. Most often there are people with a predominance of visual, auditory or motor images of the imagination. But there are people who have a high development of all or most types of imagination. These people can be classified as the so-called mixed type. Belonging to one or another type of imagination very significantly affects the individual psychological characteristics of a person. For example, people of the auditory or motor type very often dramatize the situation in their thoughts, imagining a non-existent opponent.

The development of imagination in the human race, considered historically, follows the same path as that of the individual. Vico, whose name is well worth mentioning here because he was the first to see how myths could be useful for the study of the imagination, divided the historical path of mankind into three successive periods: divine or theocratic, heroic or fabulous, human or historical in in its own sense; and after one such cycle has passed, a new one begins

- vigorous activity (D. in general) stimulates the development of imagination

Development of various types of creative activities and scientific activities

The use of special techniques for creating new products of imagination as solutions to problems - agglutination, typification, hyperbolization, schematypization

- agglutination (from lat. agglutinatio - gluing) - combining individual parts or different objects into one image;

- emphasis, sharpening - underline in created image some detail, highlighting a part;

- hyperbolization - displacement of an object, change in the number of its parts, reduction or increase in its size;

- schematization - highlighting the characteristic that is repeated in homogeneous phenomena and reflecting it in a specific image.

- typing - highlighting the similarities of objects, smoothing out their differences;

Active connection of feelings and emotions.

Imagination and creativity.

The leading connection is the dependence of imagination on creativity: imagination is formed in the process of creative activity. The imagination, necessary for the transformation of reality and creative activity, was formed in the process of this creative activity. The development of imagination occurred as more and more perfect products of imagination were created.

Imagination plays a particularly important role in scientific and artistic creativity. Creativity without active participation imagination is generally impossible. Imagination allows a scientist to build hypotheses, mentally imagine and perform scientific experiments, search for and find non-trivial solutions to problems. Imagination plays important role in the early stages of solving a scientific problem and often leads to remarkable insights.

The study of the role of imagination in the processes of scientific and technical creativity is carried out by specialists in the psychology of scientific creativity.

Creativity is closely related to all mental processes, including imagination. The degree of development of imagination and its characteristics are no less important for creativity than, say, the degree of development of thinking. The psychology of creativity manifests itself in all its specific types: inventive, scientific, literary, artistic, etc. What factors determine the possibility of human creativity? 1) human knowledge, which is supported by appropriate abilities, and is stimulated by determination; 2) the presence of certain experiences that create the emotional tone of creative activity.

The English scientist G. Wallace made an attempt to study the creative process. As a result, he was able to identify 4 stages of the creative process: 1. Preparation (the birth of an idea). 2. Maturation (concentration, “contraction” of knowledge, directly and indirectly). 3. Insight (intuitive grasp of the desired result). 4. Check.

Thus, the creative transformation of reality in the imagination is subject to its own laws and is carried out in certain ways. New ideas arise on the basis of what was already in consciousness, thanks to the operations of synthesis and analysis. Ultimately, the processes of imagination consist in the mental decomposition of initial ideas into their component parts (analysis) and their subsequent combination in new combinations (synthesis), i.e. are analytical and synthetic in nature. Consequently, the creative process relies on the same mechanisms that are involved in the formation of ordinary images of the imagination.