Greetings, friends! What do you associate with the New Year? Someone will answer that with the smell or taste of tangerines, someone will have a memory of a Christmas tree, someone will remember their family, or maybe the Olivier salad. The associations are rich and personal. Surprisingly, scientists attach importance to them. Although we are usually used to not paying attention to them, but in vain! Associative thinking can be very useful in modern life, when an overabundance of information, as well as a lack of free time, makes us more automatic and less creative.

Getting to know the world of associations

We often say similar phrases: “I associate you with...”, “I have an association with...”. But it’s not often that we think about what an association is. This word most often refers to the relationship between objects and phenomena that is present in a person’s consciousness and imprinted in his memory.

Associations accumulate over the course of human life and depend on the experience gained. There are no laws strictly establishing the rules for creating associative connections. Everything is individual. However, there are several general principles due to which we usually draw parallels between subjects:

• Adjacency: objects are nearby in time or space. For example, cup and saucer, summer and heat.
• Similarities: when objects have something in common in appearance. Let's say the ball and the head are both round in shape.
• Contrast: concepts in our minds can be opposed. For example, black and white, truth and lies.
• Cause-effect: one object is a consequence of another. The simplest thing: thunder and lightning.

Our consciousness also strives to generalize, to subordinate one concept to another, to compare parts and wholes, to complement objects.

Most often, associations are created according to these principles. It is interesting to follow the formation of your own relationships, and then think about what criteria you used to connect these objects. If you suddenly find that none of the above points apply to your association, this does not mean that it is wrong. There are no wrong ones! And this is their beauty.

What is the practical value of associations?

The ability to build unusual logical chains is certainly necessary for people whose activities are related to creative search and creation of something new. But even if you're in a field where creativity isn't a key skill, the ability to make connections is useful for memory development. Most mnemonic techniques are based specifically on working with associations. In addition, independent critical thinking is highly valued in modern society. Bright, creative people invariably attract attention and stand out from the crowd. It seems like it's always interesting to be with them. But this is actually true.

Thinking through associations is beyond logic. Many of them simply appear in the head in response to a picture carefully proposed by the imagination. But it is the development of associative thinking that has a beneficial effect on:

• understanding the principles of logic,
• development of imagination,
• perception of semantic connections,
• memory.

I hope these reasons are enough to start working closely with your associations. By the way, there is one more point: self-knowledge. It was on the associative method that psychoanalysis was based. Z. Freud always considered association a secret sign of our subconscious, by unraveling which you can learn a lot about consciousness. Are you ready to learn something new about yourself? If yes, try the following test.

Association test

Playing with associations is always a deep process, an exploration of one’s personality. With this test, you will be able to look a little into your subconscious to understand what is happening to you now or what is important.

1. Write down 16 random words, the first ones that come to mind.
2. To make it a little easier, here are 16 letters: T, D, B, M, G, A, F, O, K, R, V, N, Z, P, L, S. Let your words begin with them. That is, the first word begins with the letter T, the second begins with D, etc.
3. Divide the resulting associative series into pairs (words that stand next to each other) and select a new association for this pair. It turns out that you have 8 words left.
4. Do the same operation with the new row. Once again. At first you will have 4 words, then only two.
5. The last one is the most important! – operation: match the association to the remaining pair. It is this that is of particular value at the moment. Look at it carefully, think, what is this for?

As you can see, ways to develop associative thinking can be extremely exciting, as well as educational.

Developmental exercises

In the case of associative thinking, activities will be enjoyable, easy, and enjoyable. This is exactly the case when you can play: the more, the better. However, it is better to choose thematic games: for example, Imaginarium is an excellent board game for a small company. It’s not bad if you get used to exchanging associations with your loved ones. It is sometimes interesting to trace why exactly such a word was born in response. This way you will learn more deeply not only about yourself, but also about your partner.

A game that frees the mind from stereotypes and clichés can work well. Agree that the counter question must be answered without hesitation, quickly, absurdly and inappropriately. For example, to the question: “What time is it?” - you can answer: “I’m reading a book.” If the answers are also funny, this exercise will extend your life by a couple of minutes.

The following task greatly expands the circle of associations and increases associative thinking: take two unrelated words, then try to build a semantic chain between them, starting with one and ending with the other.

One of the exercises that guides thinking will be the following: you have to build a chain of associations, but based on certain restrictions. For example, imagine that you are a loader or a doctor, a ten-year-old child or a forty-year-old woman. Enter the role, answer not on your behalf, but on their behalf. This task helps you get a better feel for different systems of associations, teaches you to leave the given framework or, conversely, stay within it.

Consider the fact that these exercises are not just entertainment, an attempt to pass the time. These are ways to develop an important skill. This means you need to exercise regularly, devoting at least 15 minutes to training.

Even an ordinary trip on public transport can be turned into a developing activity: watch the people standing next to you, imagine how old they are, what they do, what they think about.

It will be great if you start using mnemonic techniques. They are useful for studying and for memorizing large amounts of information.

Pleasant associations, with respect Alexander Fadeev.

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"Associative thinking in the development of memory"

To better remember the necessary information and retain it in memory longer, it is good to find vivid, memorable associations. Their use will help you more fully reproduce information at the right time. Creating associations is a creative process, but there is nothing complicated, much less impossible, about it. First of all, let's agree that there are a few rules to learn:

• The association should be interesting.
• The association must be unusual.
• The association should be as detailed as possible.

And now a little more detail. So, what exactly is an association and how can it help memorize information?

Association(lat. Association- connection, interconnection) - in psychology and philosophy, a naturally occurring connection between individual events, facts, objects or phenomena, reflected in consciousness and fixed in memory.

Ideas about the relationship of objects in the imagination developed in ancient philosophy (Aristotle, Plato), but the term “association” itself was introduced in 1698 by J. Locke to denote the relationship between ideas caused by a random combination of circumstances.

We see an object, the subconscious analyzes it, and the imagination synthesizes something similar (in general it analyzes the object, circumstances) encountered earlier or in a similar situation. A set of associative concepts is formed throughout life, because is based on the life experiences of each of us.

We all use associations, although we often don't think about it. For example, when you hear the word New Year, someone will first of all think of a beautiful Christmas tree decorated with balls, someone of fluffy snow, someone of gifts or the smell of tangerines. All associations can be combined into several groups:

• associations by similarity: globe-ball,
• associations by contrast: big-small, black-white,
• associations by contiguity in space or time: spring-flowering, autumn-rain,
• cause-and-effect associations: day-light, night-dark.

In addition to the main types of associations, you can use:

• generalization: chamomile-flowers,
• submission: chamomile flowers,
• part and whole: second-minute,
• addition: pen and paper.

When studying a large volume of material, the use of associations allows you to form semantic connections between objects, making it easier to move from one point to another, memorize and recall information. To remember something new, we need to compare it with a particular event, an image, previously gained experience, or the knowledge we have. It must be said that different images of feelings are involved in building associations. One remembers better by writing down information (tactile memory), another by saying it out loud (auditory), the third by highlighting key words, drawing diagrams (visual), etc. To develop associative thinking, you need to find similar elements in different things and train figurative memory, using the features of your sensory representational system. The following simple exercises will help you expand your circle of associations, develop your imagination and associative thinking.

Exercise 1 “Chain of Associations”

We take any word and write down a number of associations for it: ticket-cinema-friends-walk-course-institute. Over time, increase the speed of coming up with associations.

Exercise 2 “Filling the Gap”

We take two words that have a minimum in common with each other and fill the gap between them with associative words. For example, a pencil and a diploma. Intermediate words can be: pencil-class-study-diploma.

Exercise 3 Multiple Associations

We take several words and select associations that suit each of them. You can start with two words, then add a few more to them. For example, rectangular, brown. You can choose words for them: bread, brick, etc.

Exercise 4 Non-standard associations

There are associations that come to mind for most, for example, a closet - clothes, a football - a ball, a face - eyes. Come up with unusual associations for them, which will contribute to better memorization.
If you devote 10-15 minutes a day to exercises, the associations will be brighter and more interesting each time, and it will be easier and easier to come up with them; in the end, you will remember any new material faster and for a long time.

Thinking with the help of associations is inherent in absolutely each of us. But not everyone knows how to work with them correctly. Let's figure out together how building connections between words helps us in life, and most importantly, how to develop associative thinking.

The story of how associative thinking helped Marina quickly remember new information

During my school days, I was always nervous about tests or simply cumbersome assignments that required me to memorize a lot of material. I was never able to remember everything completely; something always slipped out of my memory.

At that time, a new girl, Marina, transferred to our school. She and I quickly became friends, and before the next independent work, I complained that I had trouble remembering material from textbooks. To my surprise, Marina enthusiastically began to help me. But it is worth noting that she never had problems with her studies, her memory did not let her down. Sometimes it seemed to me that Marina knew the answers to all the questions.

When we met a week before independent work, Marina brought me several incomprehensible drawings and said that from today we would develop associative thinking together. The memory training she promised me turned into an association game. And the material for that very independent game served as a “field” for the game.

And indeed, with the help of associations, everything is remembered much easier and faster! I didn't notice how the week passed. Marina and I, who read the material only once during the entire period, wrote an excellent independent work. Since then, she has helped me develop associative thinking, and I have never encountered problems in my studies again.

Associative thinking - what is it?

Surely many of us have heard or ourselves uttered the following phrase: “I associate you with...”. However, not everyone thinks about what an association is. As a rule, this word denotes the relationship between objects and phenomena that takes place in the human mind and remains in memory. Many people use these types of connections every day without even realizing it. For example, someone talks about the New Year, and the image of oranges, spruce or fireworks pops up in our minds.

In psychology, it is customary to distinguish several types of associations:

• contrasting, opposite (water-fire);
• related (carriage-car);
• generalized (apple-fruit);
• close in space and time (heat-summer);
• cause-and-effect (pencil-drawing);
• thematic (itching-allergy);
• formed on the basis of one root (cloudy);
• having a phonetic relationship (dot-daughter).

Now let's move on to the main question: associative thinking - what is it, what does it give to a person? Why is it so important to develop it?

Surely someone will think that he used to live easily without it. However, such a thought is incorrect. It was previously noted how often our consciousness selects connections between words. And so that these connections are not just a set of words and images, they need to be developed. First, we still need to understand in more detail the very mechanism of our consciousness.

Wikipedia doesn't give an exact definition, so we can figure it out ourselves. Earlier we already noted what associations are, and on the basis of this definition we can define the thought process itself.

So, associative thinking is a type of thinking that is based on connections between words. With its help, our consciousness can easily process incoming information without any logical analysis. That is, thanks to it, we can think much faster and more efficiently.

Solving many problems is complicated by limited associative thinking. At first glance, it may seem that we all use the amount of information that we have collected throughout our lives. Although in reality a person is accustomed to working with only a small part of his own knowledge. Thereby independently limiting your capabilities.

In an adult, the process of memorization occurs on the basis of accumulated experience. With the help of his imagination, he perceives events, phenomena, objects, facts and associates a new word with an already familiar image. Accordingly, it is easier for an adult to develop thinking, since he has a lot of experience and a rich store of knowledge behind him. This is especially useful for people involved in creative activities or science. People who can think associatively are valued at work. They see the world around them in bright colors, and they themselves are always positive and creative.

With the help of associative thinking, children learn about the world around them. Associations in a child’s life influence his perception of the world and further learning.

Sometimes parents will not understand why their child should study additionally if he already takes everything he needs from the environment. However, experts have proven that consciousness cannot develop independently, without the help of the child’s parents. Therefore, it is advisable to begin developing a child’s thinking from infancy.

It is worth noting that special attention needs to be paid to negative connections. After all, when a doctor is mentioned, a child often thinks about injections or bitter pills. School reminds you to do a lot of homework. Such thinking poisons the child’s life, developing a negative attitude towards the world around him. Only a parent has the power to stop this process, put associations in the right direction, and teach the child to think positively.

A limited number of associations in both an adult and a child prevents them from developing and solving problems effectively and quickly.

What skills does associative thinking help develop?

We cannot deny that a person with developed thinking will be much more successful than one who has not developed it. It is important to start developing associative thinking from childhood, as this will provide benefits in the future, namely:

• an extraordinary fantasy is formed;
• memory improves;
• voluntary attention will appear;
• the child begins to offer unusual ideas at an early age;
• the child easily begins to generate new semantic connections.

It is necessary to provide favorable conditions for the development of the child. Eliminate any stress from his life, because it is this that creates the basis for the formation of age-related fears. And they, as you know, greatly inhibit a person’s growth as a successful and interesting person.

Associative thinking is beneficial when studying. It is easier for schoolchildren and students to remember material and analyze information by building special connections between words.

Associations help adults in solving a variety of problems; they stimulate active thinking. Special exercises help you make new discoveries more successfully, come up with creative ideas, and better remember new information. For example, Tony Buzan’s system for quickly assimilating information is based precisely on the associative method.

In modern society, people with independent critical thinking are highly valued. Such people are bright and creative and immediately attract attention. Most people are always interested in spending time with them.

I hope the skills listed are enough to start working with associations. But I would like to highlight one more reason - self-knowledge. Freud believed that our subconscious, with the help of associations, sends us secret messages, the solution to which will reveal a lot of new information about consciousness. If you are ready to discover new information about yourself, then start doing the exercises.

5 exercises that will help you work more successfully with associations

A number of special exercises for the development of associative thinking will help to interestingly and successfully develop our consciousness, replenish our vocabulary and improve speech literacy. All exercises are quite simple and can be easily performed throughout the day.

Let's take a closer look at the most effective ways to work with associations:

1. Associative chain - you need to come up with two completely different words and build a chain of other words between them, with the help of which a connection will arise between them.
2. Beginning of associations - you need to choose one word that will be at the beginning of the chain. And after that you need to select other words that are somehow related to the beginning. Try to build as long a chain as your imagination allows.
3. Common association - this exercise also requires you to come up with two words, but this time you need to come up with associations that will be common to them. For example, cold and white. The words winter, snow, refrigerator are equally suitable for them.
4. Reveal the secret of doodles - the essence of this exercise is a description of a picture that depicts a variety of doodles in which each person will see a certain image. There are different versions of pictures that perfectly train thought processes.
5. Non-trivial association - choose a specific term and select an unusual association for it. For example, when most people hear the word "paper", they think of office supplies. However, paper can also be used for crafts, such as paper airplanes or origami. This means that the association for the word “paper” can be “airplane” or “craft”.

These exercises do not require much effort from a person, both physical and mental, so you can train even while doing household chores.

How often should you exercise?

If you want the exercises to bear fruit as quickly and effectively as possible, devote 1-2 hours a day to them at any time of the day. You can train gradually throughout the day, devoting up to 20 minutes to one task. Make up as many associations as you can. It's not only useful, but also fun.

Why do we need this?

Associative thinking allows you to easily learn new material, generate incredible ideas, and be the first in your favorite activity. Creating an associative series is as easy as shelling pears, but it is worth remembering and taking into account one important rule - in order for the connection between words to be remembered better, it must be bright and unusual. It is such events that are firmly deposited in our memory. You need to perform special exercises every day, and then you can maximize your memory, imagination and creativity.

Now, knowing what associative thinking is, you can learn more new words and not torment yourself with memorizing tedious wording. Whether you are an adult or a child, it doesn’t matter; it’s never too late to develop associations. Reading this article is the first step towards developing effective thinking. I would also like to recommend reading other articles on development on this site. Learn new things, share with your friends and never stop in your quest to become better.

Development of associative thinking in the process of music perception.

The perception of a musical work in children of primary school age occurs mainly through the creation of internal close and familiar visual pictures in the imagination. They can draw virtual pictures from personal experience, stories from adults, familiar literary works, watched movies and theater performances.

Having given a listen to one or another piece of music that is accessible to children’s perception, the teacher offers to describe the pictures that were born in the children’s imagination at the moment the music was played, since a musical artistic image does not carry a pronounced specificity, imaginary pictures can be very different . The main thing is for children to feel the mood and character of the music and turn on their inner vision, i.e. found a visual and verbal image that is adequate to the musical one.

Games and warm-ups for figurative perception of color. To perceive works of fine art, it is necessary to master the richness of colors. Only after children become familiar with colors and their shades can they begin to master the cold and warm range of colors.

Active mastery of cold and warm colors will help children not only organically perceive the character and mood of works of art, but also deepen the visual associations that arise when listening to music and observing the phenomena of life around them. Children will be able to look at themselves, their clothes, and the surrounding interior through the eyes of an artist, i.e. evaluate yourself and others in their everyday appearance from emotional and aesthetic positions.

Warm-up “Pick a color.” Music sounds in a major or minor mode. The children's task is to choose one color and explain why it matches the music. This is how a reaction to the modal uniqueness of the musical image and color associativity is developed.

Game "Guess who I am." The teacher shows one flag or another, and the children name the objects that they have encountered in life of the same color. The game can use geometric shapes cut out of colored paper, scraps of fabric, etc.

Motor – plastic games, exercises and sketches. Mastering plastic arts, the dynamics of beauty of movements, and the richness of facial expressions constitute an important aspect of aesthetic education. Such activities should begin with games and simple exercises that allow the child to adapt to the space in which he is located and to feel his plastic capabilities.

Then they move on to exercises to develop hand plasticity. They can be performed both sitting and standing. It is desirable that they be accompanied by rhythmic music that coincides with the images created by gestures. When performing exercises, it is important to take into account the subjective characteristics of children, their temperament and creative imagination. The images proposed for plastic embodiment must be previously characterized by the children themselves, taking into account their personal experience and observations.

Situational sketches can reproduce plots of famous paintings, be musical and plastic improvisations, or illustrate certain life situations that arise in life. Such sketches are aimed at adequately conveying emotions and movements, at matching the image of what is being imagined and what is being created.

Game "I am a portrait." The child imagines himself as the image in the portrait. His task is to determine and choose for himself the background on which he is depicted. Others call this background.

Plastic sketch for hands “Leaves are falling...”. To the smooth music of a waltz, children imitate falling leaves with their hands. Movements should be light, corresponding to the musical melody. You can complicate the task: “The wind blew.” Then the character of the musical image changes - the children depict leaves blown by the wind.

Sketch “Snow is whirling”. To the music, the children smoothly lower their hands, trying to convey various states: snow is slowly falling, suddenly the wind picks up snowflakes, a snowstorm begins... This can be developed by asking the children to get up from their seats and complement the plasticity of the hands with movements of the whole body. Completion of the sketch - snowflakes fall to the ground, and not all fall together, but one by one. Children learn ease of wrist movements, smoothness of gestures and other objects.

Game "Freeze!" The guys perform a dynamic plastic sketch on a given topic. On the command “Freeze!” they freeze in the positions in which she found them. In this case, the plastic sketch moves from a dynamic form to a static one, which gives children an idea of ​​the relativity of movement and rest and develops coordination.

Thinking is the main cognitive process that determines much in a person’s life. Associative thinking is a concept that reflects the use of associations: all connections between actions and ideas come from sensations and the traces they leave in the brain. Association is a connection between concepts and ideas that arises in the process of their awareness. One of the ideas evokes another in the mind - this is how associations are born.

Associative connections are not the same for different people, because they depend on personal experience. Thus, one person associates the word “autumn” with slush and bad weather, another with bright yellow autumn flowers, a third with a riot of colors in a deciduous forest, a fourth with mushrooms and “quiet hunting”, a fifth with loneliness , drizzling rain and a deserted alley stretching into the distance, strewn with withered leaves, and for the sixth - happy birthday, friends, gifts and fun.

The term “association” was introduced by the English philosopher and educator John Locke back in 1698, and has been widely used since then. Thanks to associative thinking, we get acquainted with new things, discover the world for ourselves, expand the boundaries of its knowledge, and learn to think outside the box.

Types of associations

There are different classifications of associations. For example, based on a number of characteristics, the following types can be distinguished:

- Cause - effect (rain - raincoat, lightning - thunder, snow - skis).

— Contiguity, proximity in time and space (sausage - refrigerator, computer - mouse).

- Similarity, similarity of concepts (cloud - feather bed, pear - light bulb).

— Contrast (white - black, fire - ice, cold - heat).

- Generalization (flower - bouquet, birch - tree).

— Submission (vegetable – tomato, bush – viburnum).

— Addition (borscht - sour cream, salad - mayonnaise).

- Whole and parts (body - hand, house - entrance).

- Subordination to one object (pincers - pliers, chair - bench, cup - glass).

There are also associations based on consonance (cat - midge, shadow - fence) and word-forming ones, built on words with the same root (sineva - blue, stove - baking).

In the process of building associations, different senses can be involved, so associations can be gustatory, visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.

Associative theory of thinking

The formation of associations was associated with the first ideas about the universal laws of human mental life. In the 17th century, the psychology of thinking had not yet been identified as a separate section, and thinking was not considered as a special form of human activity. The development of thinking was understood as a process of accumulation of associations.

The associative theory of thinking is one of the earliest. Its supporters believed that thinking is an innate ability and comes down to associations connecting traces of the past and impressions of present experience. Unfortunately, this theory could not explain the creative nature of the thinking process, the specificity of its content and the patterns of its occurrence.

However, based on the learning process, the associative theory of thinking highlighted several very significant points for the development of thinking:

— The importance of using visual material in the learning process;

— Awareness that learning is possible only through sensory knowledge, i.e. through images and representations.

— Understanding that associations expand the boundaries of abilities, through them consciousness is stimulated, activating the processes of comparison, analysis, and generalization.

Development of associative thinking

Ideas suggested by associations have been successfully used by people for a long time. Observations of fish gave rise to the idea of ​​​​creating a submarine, and the ascent and submersion systems were inspired by associations with the air bladder of a fish. The idea of ​​echolocation was borrowed from dolphins. The burdock clinging to the dog's fur suggested to Georges de Menstral, an engineer from Switzerland, the principle of creating Velcro, which is now widely used in clothing and shoes. Many unrealized ideas suggested by associations were preserved in the notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. Thus, bird observations suggested to him the idea of ​​an ornithopter, which would allow a person to soar above the ground. His sketches of a parachute are a reflection of the dream of a flying man, drifting in the heights, not afraid to fall from any height. And this is only a tiny part of the ideas inspired by associations, and the main thing is that this process cannot be stopped.

Developed associative thinking gives us a number of advantages:

Promotes the development of imagination;

Helps generate new, extraordinary ideas;

Facilitates perception and promotes the formation of new semantic connections;

Improves adaptation to new, non-standard situations and helps in finding solutions to unusual problems;

Stimulates brain function;

Improves memory capacity.

It is impossible not to mention that the basis of mnemonics, which allows you to memorize large volumes of words, are associations. You can learn more about associative memory

It is better to begin the development of associative thinking from early childhood, step by step. First, you just need to introduce the child to all the concepts encountered and the actions associated with them. The next stage is teaching the child to generalize. For example, cups, plates, saucers - dishes; chair, table, armchair - furniture; car, doll, cubes - toys. At the same time, the child learns to name and distinguish objects.

For older children, other, more complex exercises are needed: drawing up associative series, searching for a sequence in a word series, analyzing objects by attribute.

A child’s associative thinking can lead him to psychologically difficult situations. For a parent, in the case when a child reacts sharply negatively to an image or association (for example, vaccination - injection - doctor - white coat), it is important to understand that suppressed associations driven “into a dark corner” can cause the development of various kinds of complexes in the future. It is important to be patient, talk to your child about what scares him, explain, and be positive. You should listen to the child and his associations, try to understand his needs, images, aspirations in order to support the child, reassure him, and restore his sense of security.

Exercises for developing associative thinking

Want to try association games? This is the case when games develop:

1. Take any two words that are not related in meaning, and try to gradually create a semantic associative chain leading from one to the other. For example: a car and a tree. The chain could be like this: car – road – forest – tree.

2. Think of a few words (for example: bottle, beads, window). Choose association words for them that are similar in one or more characteristics (for example: glass, hard, sparkling, green).

3.Choose associations that unite all the words at the same time. For example: cold, shiny - ice, diamond, metal.

4. If you are on a walk or on the road, and you have a travel companion, come up with any first word and, in turn, lead a chain of associations from it. When an association is not clear, explain its appearance. It's fun, interesting and develops associative thinking.

5. Come up with unusual associations. For example, wallet - money is a common, expected association. What else can you keep in your wallet? A lottery ticket, a lock of hair, an amulet, a note, a key?

6. There is an interesting test that does not take much time, but allows you to play with associations and look into your subconscious and understand what is bothering you. This is the first step towards a solution, right? You can simply come up with 16 any words, or you can use auxiliary initial letters. But you shouldn’t think for a long time, you need to write the first thing that comes to mind and be honest with yourself (if your goal is to get to know yourself better and solve your problem). You can use nouns, adjectives, adverbs, phrases. So, if you decide to use letters (it’s easier to start with), take a piece of paper and write down the following letters vertically on the left: t, d, b, m, g, a, g, o, k, p, c, n, z , p, l, s. Now, opposite each of them, write a word starting with that letter - the first one that comes to mind. Now take the resulting words in pairs, selecting an association for every two consecutive words running vertically. Write down associations next to each pair of words. You will get 8 words. Then again, vertically from top to bottom, combine the two resulting words and again write down the emerging associations. Now there will be 4 of them. Combine them in pairs, write down two new associations. By combining them, you get the key association, the most important one. Associations helped in the study of the subconscious, they were used by S. Freud, then by C. Jung, and are still used by many psychoanalysts (and not only) to this day. By using the creative component of your personality, during such a test you can look into your subconscious and find ways to solve the problem, if any. In any case, by putting associations and thoughts on paper, we subject them to analysis, look deeper into ourselves and understand better.

Impaired associative thinking

Violations of associative thinking are expressed in changes in its pace, focus and harmony. Serious painful disorders of associative thinking are the subject of study in the literature on psychiatry and clinical psychology, in the section of psychopathology.

Some patterns of disturbances in the thought process were identified. Based on the symptoms of disorders, disorders are divided, for example, into form and content. In the first case, we are talking about violations of the associative process of thinking (the way a person thinks), and in the second - violations of judgment (what a person thinks, various kinds of obsessive states, delusions, super-black ideas). Below we will consider only some types of disorders of associative thinking:

By changing the pace of thinking:

— Acceleration, a noticeably faster pace of processing information, generating ideas, making decisions, and sometimes a leap of ideas. This acceleration is characteristic of manic states.

- Slowing down the pace, excessive delay in thinking and making decisions.

— Involuntary intrusion of thoughts (mentism), interfering with the thought process, leading off the topic.

— Stopping thinking is a break in the flow of thoughts, their involuntary stop.

In terms of mobility and liveliness of the thinking process:

— An abundance of detail, minor details, unimportant to the topic.

- Excessive thoroughness, aggravating the previous point with unnecessary distracting associations and details.

— Viscosity of thoughts, in which thinking ceases to be productive, the thread of conversation is lost.

According to the grammatical structure of speech:

— The use of cliches, ready-made cliches, templates or questions when constructing an answer, that is, the use of speech stereotypes.

- Repeating meaningless words, sounds or phrases.

— Incoherent repetition of words or their combinations, in which there is no logical or grammatical structure.

By purpose:

— Excessive floridity when expressing a simple thought.

— Slipping off the topic into a lengthy discussion based on an abstract association, followed by a return to the topic.

- Verbose empty and lengthy ranting without purpose, “about nothing” (reasoning).

— Directing efforts not at resolving the issue, but at executing the protocol (formalism).

— Consideration of the issue from different angles, with different evaluation criteria, changing levels of generalization, which makes it impossible to make a final decision (diversity).

— Fuzzy, contradictory use of concepts, when it is almost impossible to understand what is being said (amorphousness).

— Violations of the logic of thinking, in which either premises, or cause-and-effect relationships, or evidence suffer.

— Symbolism that is understandable only to the patient himself, and to no one else.

— Pathological finding of new meanings in words, based, for example, on the number of letters or on their rhyming with one or another (for example, “happy” or “unlucky”) word.

— Autistic thinking is one that concerns only the patient’s inner world, closed to outsiders.

- Archaic thinking - it is based on ancient stereotypes, judgments, views that are far from modernity.

- Perseveration (perseverance, persistence) - in this case, a person persistently repeats words, phrases or deeds, even if the relevant context has already been exhausted.

— Discontinuity (lack of logical connection between concepts, judgments and conclusions), although the grammatical structure of speech may not be disrupted.

To keep the brain in good shape, the comprehensive development of its cognitive functions, such as attention, thinking, memory and perception, is important. To develop them, you can use regular classes on.

We sincerely wish you a useful and exciting pastime and success in self-development!