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Topic: Abstract thinking

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	narrative vs abstract thinking-Relation of abstract to analytical thought-Role of abstract & narrative thought
		Analytic, abstract thinking is ideal for reporting the regular, the expected, the normal, the ordinary, the unsurprising, the mundane, the things we often take so much for granted that we are hardly conscious that we know them at all.
		Abstract analysis is easier to understand when seen through the lens of a well-chosen story and can of course be used to make explicit the implications of a story.
		It proposes marrying the communicative and imaginative strengths of storytelling with the advantages of abstract and scientific analysis.
	www.stevedenning.com /abstract_thinking.html (680 words)

	Cutting Ed
		Thinking as a process (and aesthetic education) has fallen from favor as a means of innovation or problem solving in lieu of well established linear approaches (which have, admittedly, yielded great scientific advances).
		Examining the process of thinking is often thought of as a purely esoteric endeavor of people who lock themselves in small dark rooms to struggle with the demons of human existence (and whose place is in the arts, philosophy, and, increasingly, psychology).
		While the task of integrating problem solving and thinking skills into a curriculum is not to be solved by a few class lectures and appropriate assignments, academicians can teach processes and approaches to thinking that students can apply and continue to apply throughout their lives.
	www.isat.jmu.edu /cuttinged/winter0304/article1_teachingthinking.html (2445 words)

	Insight Assessment \| California Academic Press
		Abstract: Theorists have hypothesized that skill in critical thinking is positively correlated with the consistent internal motivation to think; and, moreover, that specific critical thinking skills are matched with specific critical thinking dispositions.
		A holistic critical thinking scoring rubric, a framework for critical thinking individual and group presentations, and a case study strategy for training and nurturing critical thinking in students illustrate that the critical thinking in nursing knowledge development and clinical judgment an be externalized, taught, modeled, and measured.
		Abstract: Assessing critical thinking skills and the disposition to use them is crucial in nursing education and research.
	www.insightassessment.com /articles2.html (1989 words)

	John Dewey: How We Think: Chapter 10: Concrete and Abstract Thinking (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		The abstract thinker (the man of pure science as he is sometimes called) deliberately abstracts from application in life; that is, he leaves practical uses out of account.
		(138) are abstract, not only because they cannot be understood without a long apprenticeship in the science (which is equally true of technical matters in the arts), but also because the whole content of their meaning has been framed for the sole purpose of facilitating further knowledge, inquiry, and speculation.
		When thinking is used as a means to some end, good, or value beyond itself, it is concrete; when it is employed simply as a means to more thinking, it is abstract.
	spartan.ac.brocku.ca /~lward/Dewey/Dewey_1910a/Dewey_1910_j.html (2521 words)

	Soviet Psychology: Dialectics of the Abstract and the Concrete by Evald Ilyenkov
		Thinking abstractly merely means thinking unconnectedly, thinking of an individual property of a thing without understanding its links with other properties, without realising the place and role of this property in reality.
		All neo-positivists retain the same distinction, the only difference being that the abstract and the concrete (just as all philosophical categories) are here treated as linguistic categories, and the question of whether phrases expressing ‘abstract objects’; are permissible or impermissible is reduced to that of fruitfulness or expediency of their utilisation in building ‘language frames’.
		This interpretation of the terms ‘abstract’ and ‘concrete’ is refuted by the entire heritage of the history of philosophy and by Marxist philosophy; we are now passing on to the exposition of the treatment of these questions in the latter.
	www.marxists.org /archive/ilyenkov/works/abstract/abstra1b.htm (6154 words)

	Thinking Maps
		Thinking Maps are visual tools for understanding and mastering these eight thinking processes in a way that is clearly defined and common to teachers and students alike.
		Because the maps draw on the integration and application of multiple thinking processes, the concepts presented are elevated from the concrete level to abstract and inferential patterns of thinking, thus developing higher level cognitive skills.
		In addition to promoting integrated thinking and interdisciplinary learning, Thinking Maps are being utilized by teachers for an array of assessments: to assess student progress, gauge student knowledge, track student performance, and even assess their own lessons as they discover what students have learned from class.
	www.learningprep.org /thinkingmaps.htm (1394 words)

	Abstraction
		As in abstract painting, an externally imposed standard has been removed from the process of understanding and the only aspect of the music left is its internal relationships.
		At about the same time as atonal music and abstract art were realized in their fullest forms, Albert Einstein devised the theory of relativity which completely remade physics, which had been based largely on the classical mechanics of Isaac Newton.
		As in atonal music, abstract art, and relativity, the great eoncomic revolution ushered in by Keynes involved the abandonment of the notion of an objective standard.
	www.wsu.edu /~dee/GLOSSARY/ABSTRACT.HTM (1362 words)

	Introduction to thinking - Psychology Wiki - A Wikia wiki (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires.
		Thinking is a higher cognitive function and the analysis of thinking processes is part of cognitive psychology.
		Thinking can be modeled by a field (like a mathematical representation of an electro-magnetic field, but with each point in the field a point of consciousness).
	psychology.wikia.com /wiki/Thought (589 words)

	Who Thinks Abstractly? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		Here the explanation of thinking and abstract would in any case be entirely superfluous; for it is only because the beautiful world knows what it means to be abstract that it runs away.
		This is abstract thinking: to see nothing in the murderer except the abstract fact that he is a murderer, and to annul all other human essence in him with this simple quality.
		She thinks abstractly and subsumes the other woman — scarf, hat, shirt, etc., as well as her fingers and other parts of her, and her father and whole family, too — solely under the crime that she has found the eggs rotten.
	www.marxists.org /reference/archive/hegel/works/se/abstract.htm (1471 words)

	Progamming to Develop Abstract Thinking
		Even though they may be constricted in their thinking because their language is limited, they have mastered a specific environment.
		If we are not critical of students during this process and allow them to experiment and develop their ideas, we will see their ideas as they try them out in the programming environment or on paper, and hear their discussions with us and with other students.
		Using the computer for an activity such as the house is a hands-on, activity; you will observe the students as they put their hands on the screen to estimate and conjecture.
	www.worldwebdynamics.com /lou/programming/programming.htm (3344 words)

	Educational Psychology Interactive: Cognitive Development
		He noticed that young children's answers were qualitatively different than older children which suggested to him that the younger ones were not dumber (a quantitative position since as they got older and had more experiences they would get smarter) but, instead, answered the questions differently than their older peers because they thought differently.
		In this period (which has two substages), intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed, but thinking is done in a nonlogical, nonreversable manner.
		In this stage, intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts.
	chiron.valdosta.edu /whuitt/col/cogsys/piaget.html (1016 words)

	Educational Resources Inc.
		Guided by the survey of literature, definitions of abstract thinking and critical processing skills have evolved and combined into a holistic approach to the critical thinking process.
		Goal setting is the abstract thinking level that reflects a student's understanding of a problem situation and the effectiveness of the student's intellectual process when establishing goals and prioritizing necessary interventions.
		Evaluation of predicted outcomes is the level of abstract thinking that reflects an individual's ability to effectively measure an action based on specific goals within a problem solving situation.
	www.eriworld.com /ctptdevtech5.asp (316 words)

	The Critical Mode of Thinking
		Abstract thinking tends to create categories which contrast opposite aspects of the real world against each other.
		The tendency to neglect the complications connected with the use of abstractions must be regarded as a weakness of the critical mode of thinking because abstractions are indispensable to it, and the less they are understood the greater confusion they create.
		The results of their thinking cannot be predicted; they may or may not continue to make democracy a success.
	www.osi.hu /oss/ch2d.html (3124 words)

	Abstract Thought - Brain & Mind Magazine (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		For example, in algebra, when we say that x is a variable, we abstract ourselves from its present value, but we consider all the possible values of x as numbers, which are not `physical' objects, but linguistic objects formed by abstraction during the process of counting.
		The abstract component is denounced by the evident forethought of an elaborated conspiracy, executed, in an united action, by the two chimpanzees.
		The abstract thought may develop from external stimuli captured by the sensorial organs, from evoked memories or, simply, from incoming messages hidden in the depths of the mind and without any trace of a conscious memory.
	www.cerebromente.org.br /n12/opiniao/pensamento_i.htm (3069 words)

	20th WCP: Heidegger On Poetry And Thinking: Some Educational Implications
		To be specific, the fact that the country of thinking is open in all directions to the neighborhood of poetry, can often help a person follow those paths of thinking that concern him or her.
		In any event, the sonnet reveals that the neighborhood of thinking and poetry is genuine; inspiration, ideas, thoughts, novel articulations flow from poetry to thinking and from thinking to poetry.
		The educator must recognize with his or her own being that teaching poetry without encouraging solitude and thinking, without describing the challenge of poetry and thinking, is a manner of ignoring the gift of poetry.
	www.bu.edu /wcp/Papers/Cont/ContGord.htm (4847 words)

	Abstract Thinking and Numbers (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		When abstract thinking is applied to numbers, whole new sets of numbers begin to emrege.
		Numbers are abstracted from the object or event that they describe in the sense that a meaning from the number may be applied to the objects or events that the number describes.
		Symbolic thinking is emergent here in that there may be a special meaning of twoness.
	www.psinvention.com /zoetic/abstract.htm (457 words)

	Excerpt from The Education of a Technologist
		Technologists don't think about a system as a piece of a puzzle within an enterprise, but rather they think of it as a world unto itself and assume that others will see its beauty and be attracted to it.
		Another common pitfall of mathematical, abstract thinking involves confusing the act of organizing and encapsulating a problem with the hard work of understanding the nature of each of the parts.
		The conundrum is that the technologists ability to create an abstract world allows technology solutions to be built, but the technologists desire to focus on that abstract world instead of the world in which the system will live works against the solutions being effective.
	developers.sun.com /dev/techarticles/Woods_mathematical.html (826 words)

	Abstraction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Abstraction is the process of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically in order to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose.
		A physical object (a possible referent of a concept or word) is considered concrete (not abstract) if it is a particular individual that occupies a particular place and time.
		Abstract sensation would be aesthetic as opposed to sensuous sensation and abstract intuition would be symbolic as opposed to fantastic intuition.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Abstraction (1916 words)

	Ralph Dumain: "The Autodidact Project": Essay: "Wisdom and Abstract Thought"
		How good their thinking is in those areas or even in areas in which they have some background is another question, or pair of questions.
		From an historical standpoint, there is the development of thinking from symbolism, analogical reasoning, myth and religion to "philosophy" as we know it, and from various mixtures of what we call objective knowledge and superstition to science as we know it.
		And in which cases is the abstract, systematic formulation of ideas a luxury, a gloss on concrete phenomena and situations requiring judgment, which may be of interest as an exercise for professional philosophers but inessential to understanding the matter at hand, and in which cases does the lack of a theoretical framework render understanding impossible?
	www.autodidactproject.org /my/wisdom.html (5102 words)

	Baboons Can Think Abstractly
		Two baboons successfully used analogous thinking to match symbol arrays that were the "same but different"
		WASHINGTON - More non-human animals may be capable of abstract thought than previously known, with profound implications for the evolution of human intelligence and the stuff that separates homo sapiens from other animals.
		A trans-Atlantic team of psychologists has found evidence of abstract thought in baboons, significant because baboons are "old world monkeys," part of a different primate "super family" that -- some 30 million years ago -- split from the family that gave rise to apes and then humans.
	www.apa.org /releases/baboonthought.html (790 words)

	Abstract Thinking
		One thing you can learn from the definitions, theorems and proofs you'll see in Linear Algebra (and any branch of pure Mathematics for that matter) is how to think clearly and express yourself clearly, to avoid misunderstanding and confusion.
		One advantage linear algebra has over some other subjects for introducing abstract thinking, is that much of the material has a geometric interpretation.
		The geometric intuition you already have will be complemented by an "algebraic picture", one that will allow you, with practice, to "see" in higher dimensions that are inaccessible to our normal senses.
	aix1.uottawa.ca /~jkhoury/abstract.htm (254 words)

	Help Your Child Think Big!
		The development of abstract thinking goes hand in hand with your child's developing math skills.
		You can help your child build abstract thinking skills throughout the day by talking about, and helping her reflect on, her experiences.
		One day, he spotted a butterfly and excitedly said, "Bird!" Victor had used abstract thinking to develop a theory that things with wings, or maybe things that fly and are bigger than bugs, are birds.
	www.scholastic.com /earlylearner/age3/learning/abstractthinking.htm (1487 words)

	Researchers home in on how brain handles abstract thought - MIT News Office
		MIT researchers reported in the June 21 issue of Nature that they have pinpointed how and where abstract thoughts are represented in the brain.
		These results could change the way psychiatrists and others think about the effects of damage from illness or injury to the prefrontal cortex, said author Earl K. Miller, the Class of 1956 Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in the Center for Learning and Memory.
		Widely thought to be a memory problem, these patients' inability to coordinate their lives may be more of an abstract thinking problem.
	web.mit.edu /newsoffice/2001/abstract-0718.html (890 words)

	Abstractions in the 3D Space-Time Continuum (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		Abstract thinking is the key ingredient to living an extraordinary life.
		Linear logical thinking is necessary for interacting in 3D; however it is the unconventional thoughts that will make your spiritual dreams a reality.
		We have had many abstract thinkers on this planet such as Nicola Tesla, Joan of Arc, Salvador Dali, Madam Blavatasky and of course, Jesus Christ.
	www.bryandeflores.com /articles/abstractions.html (784 words)

	American Institute for Cognitive Therapy : AICT In The News
		What’s activated is the thinking part of the brain, the part that allows us to have language and abstract thinking.
		One of the things I say to people is think about all the things you do during the day that involve uncertainty: crossing the street, getting food in a restaurant, saying hello to a stranger, getting in an elevator, getting in an airplane.
		Worriers tend to think that failure is catastrophic and they tend to believe that if they think about failure, they will fail.
	www.cognitivetherapynyc.com /inthenewsDetail.asp?id=192 (1547 words)

	Seven Days: Abstract Thinking
		Although Ben Shahn was a leading 20th-century social-realist painter, he had a keen enough grasp of abstraction to say, “To abstract is to draw out the essence of a matter.
		To abstract in art is to separate certain fundamentals from irrelevant material which surrounds them.” The Greek Parthenon was based on those principles.
		Should the witticisms of contemporary art someday grow thin to the point of irrelevancy, let’s hope the timeless formalism of abstraction regains stature in the cultural debate.
	www.sevendaysvt.com /art/art-review/2006/abstract-thinking.html (777 words)

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