Associative thinking: description, application and exercises for development

People have the ability, during the thought process, when perceiving a concept, to actualize the involuntary appearance of another image. The mental construction of associations is an essential feature of the human mind.

The basis of associative thinking is the connection between concepts expressed by words. In this case, consciousness easily processes incoming information without the use of logical analysis. The perception of the world, the generation of ideas and decision making are inextricably linked with the associativity of thinking. From the attention, perception, memory and life experience of the individual depends on whether it is well or poorly developed.

During acquaintance with a new phenomenon, subject, person, the individual’s brain begins to work intensely. Immediately, a mental comparison occurs with already familiar concepts, specific associations arise. At the next meeting, recognition happens with the help of previously built associative connections.

How does associative thinking work? Imagine this situation: for the first time having personally seen the northern lights, a person mentally compares it with fireworks, salutes or multi-colored lightning. The light crackling that accompanies this amazing sight is associated with the crackling of firewood in a village stove. And the timbre of the voice of a new acquaintance resembles a pleasant baritone of a colleague, the oval of a person's neighbor, the gait of a childhood friend, the name and patronymic coincide with the data of a famous writer.

Associative thinking gives a person a number of advantages. With his help:

• brain function is stimulated;
• memory is strengthened;
• imagination improves;
• an extraordinary fantasy is being formed;
• productivity of cognitive processes increases;
• the perception of new information is facilitated;
• adaptation to extraordinary situations and any life changes is being strengthened;
• voluntary attention develops;
• the search for solutions to non-standard problems is facilitated;
• new semantic connections are formed;
• unusual ideas are created;
• Creativity manifests itself in its entirety.

To create associative connections, the abilities of various sensory organs are attracted: smell, touch, taste, vision, touch. The activity of some concepts implements other ideas about objects and phenomena associated with them. For example, hearing the words “sweet”, “tasty”, “puff”, a person can instantly imagine an object with characteristic features: a pie or cake. The inner language tells him these associations.

Taking into account a number of signs, the following varieties of associative relations between objects are distinguished:

• contrasting, opposite concepts: ice - flame;
• related words with similar meanings: veterinarian - doctor;
• generic names: orange - citruses;
• subjugating other words: aggregate - a screw;
• close in space and time, related concepts: fat - a pig;
• representing parts of one whole subject: nose - face;
• causal relationships: rainfall - an umbrella;
• supplementing one of the concepts: porridge - butter.

Depending on the method and conditions of use of words, these types of associations are distinguished:

• words consisting of one root: gloom - gloomy;
• names having phonetic affinity: a hummock - a kidney;
• Thematic associations: cook - restaurant.

Associative thinking necessary for easy assimilation of any new information. It helps to implement the most incredible ideas, to successfully advance in professional and educational activities. This type of mental activity is extremely important for musical activities that affect the emotional sphere of a person. Associations contribute to the excellent comprehension and memorization of musical works with less expenditure of time and effort.

Associative thinking is necessary for people in creative professions: artists, musicians, actors, writers. Marketers, advertising managers in order to attract potential customers use interesting, original, highly detailed associations to create and promote advertising products. In this case, the information is easily remembered. Numerous examples demonstrate the importance of using targeted incentive words in advertising.

Scientists have identified some patterns of mental disorders. Violations in form are associated with a deviation of the associative process of thinking. Violations of the content include pathological judgments in the form of obsessions, delirium.

There are several types of violations of this type of thinking.

• Change in pace of the thought process may be due to strong acceleration, noticeably faster than data processing speed, spasmodic generation of ideas and quick decision making. Excessive acceleration is characteristic of manic states. In other cases, thinking can be dragged out for a long time, and the event takes a long time to think, the decision is difficult to make. Sometimes, extraneous thoughts involuntarily intrude and impede the normal thought process, and lead them astray.An unexpected stopping of thinking may also occur, in which an involuntary breakdown of current thoughts occurs.
• The mobility and liveliness of the thinking process can be complicated by the abundance of unnecessary secondary details, clarification of the smallest details that are not essential for the disclosure of the topic. The use of unnecessary, distracting associations hinders the normal act of thinking. The viscosity of thought leads to the loss of the essence of the conversation, the loss of its productivity.
• Grammatical construction of the text using stereotyped speech turns, stamps, templates, ready-made cliches deprives a person of the opportunity to think independently and expressively. The thought process is worsened by the incoherent repetition of words, phrases, meaningless phrases and unnecessary sounds.
• Sometimes a failure occurs in the direction of the goals. A man starts into empty verbosity, begins aimless ranting. He can deviate from the topic, talk extensively on an abstract association, then return to the original postulate again.

Thinking is a brain function that is subject to development and training. Systematic exercise improves your ability to think in an associative way. Children learn the environment through the associative thinking that they need for further learning and perception of the world. It is necessary to develop it from infancy. A good associative thought process gives impetus to the appearance of original images, unusual ideas in children.

Kids easily generate new semantic connections. To develop children's associative-shaped thinking can be phased. First, the baby is introduced to objects and related activities. At the next stage, they teach him to generalize concepts: dress, pants, jacket, skirt - clothes; shoes, sneakers, boots, slippers - shoes.

Effective exercises exist. For example, a child is first asked about animals: what they do, what they eat, how they sleep and wash. Then the baby is offered to transform into a specific animal. Let the little man crawl on all fours, try to squeak, sniff and make sounds characteristic of this animal. A grown-up child must learn to make associative connections, find a sequence in the verbal row, analyze objects by signs.

A negative reaction to associations can lead the baby to the development of various complexes. For example, an associative series causes negative emotions: an injection - a doctor - a thermometer - an inoculation. In a similar situation, you need to set it up for positive.

In adults, associative series stimulate the active activity of thinking. Special training exercises help them better remember new information.

• It’s necessary to come up with 2 words that are not logically interconnected, and accommodate associations between them, in this way an associative chain is created. For example, "strawberries are money." This may be the following series: strawberries - jam - shop - seller - money.
• A long associative row is obtained by matching to any word of the association. For each subsequent word form, one more associative word is selected. And so it continues until fantasy runs out. All subsequent words must be somehow related to the initial unit of speech.
• You need to pick up two words, then find associations that are common to them. For example, the words “berry”, “trees”, “grass”, “shrub”, “hazel”, “glade” are added to the concepts of “green” and “forest”.Both of the originally conceived definitions are equally suitable for any of these words.
• The search for unusual associations works great in thinking. For example, everyone knows that prints are stored in a bookcase. Expected associations: encyclopedia, collections of poems, magazines, science fiction. But you can come up with an unusual series: plates, souvenirs, jewelry, toys, stationery, and a radio.
• It is recommended that the scribbles depicted on the leaflet be mentally transformed into concrete images. Popular droodle pictures. They initially laid several options for perception, so it is possible to use many interpretations. Solving such pictures perfectly develops associative thinking.
• Group exercises include, when building an associative chain, inventing concepts in turn. Words can be selected thematically. The next task may involve indirect associations. After drawing up the chain, you need to analyze and exchange views. All participants should explain why they said this particular word.

When performing exercises, you must adhere to the main rules:

• associations should not be repeated; each word is used once during the game;
• it is necessary to search for original associations, therefore, template words and superficial concepts should be avoided;
• during the hitch that happened, you must slowly pronounce the previous word out loud, imagine the image and through it try to evoke associations;
• the search for associations should be accompanied by certain sensations in the body, since the bodily reaction contributes to the birth of the most interesting association.

You need to exercise daily. A good result is obtained when performing various exercises from 1.5 to 2 hours a day. Start to train gradually. Initially, associative series may be 20 minutes per day. Then time increases.

Best of all, bright and unusual events are fixed in the human memory. They should affect the various senses. Associations should be of genuine interest. They need to be well understood, endowed with certain details: color, size, shape. Reading a variety of literature favorably affects the associative thought process.

It is considered that in women, the associative thought process is faster than logical thinking. In men, a spatial indicator is more developed. Experts recommend the use of creative notebooks. There are ready-made publications for creative people with tasks that develop associative thinking.