Concept of representation. Properties and types of representation image.
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In everyday life, representation is often confused with imagination.
Representation is a mental process consisting of recreating images of objects that currently do not act on our senses, but previously once acted. In our imagination, we create an image that has never before impacted our senses. It would be more correct to say: imagine yourself as a Nobel Prize laureate, rather than imagine if you are not actually a Nobel Prize laureate. Typically, representation is understood as the mental process of reflecting objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality in the form of generalized visual images. The product of representation is an image-representation, or a secondary sensory-visual image of objects or phenomena, stored and reproduced in consciousness without the direct impact of the objects themselves on the senses.
A representation should be distinguished from an image-representation as a product as a process of deliberate and arbitrary creation of an image and mental manipulation (operation) of it when solving various kinds of problems.
Representations are in a complex relationship with other mental processes. With sensation and perception, representation is related by the figurative, visual form of their existence. But sensation and perception always precede representation, which cannot arise out of nowhere. The representation is precisely the result of generalization of a number of essential and sometimes unimportant features of an object.
Representations often act as standards. This circumstance brings them closer to the processes of cognition. Identification presupposes the presence of at least two objects - real, perceived, and reference. There is no such duality in ideas.
Representation is secondary images. This is the restoration of an already seen image. We see a board and flowers; the idea of them will appear when we close our eyes. They heard the melody, and then remembered and imagined it, sounding in the same register and performed by the same musical instruments. So, a representation is a reconstructed image based on past experience. Representations are often called memory images, since in both cases a person’s past experience is reproduced. Both of them belong to secondary images that arise without relying on direct perception. But the representation lacks the processes of memorization and preservation. In the process of remembering, a person is always aware of the connection with the past, but in addition to the past, the present and the future can be reflected in the idea. “The interpenetration of the visual and the generalized” in representations (B. G. Ananyev) constitutes their distinctive feature and allows us to speak of representation as an independent mental process.
Properties and types of representation image
The view has the following properties :
1. Panoramic - the image can go beyond the boundaries of the field of view, be expanded, wider than the field.
2. The background against which we see the object may change in presentation.
3. There is no constancy of the image, there are violations, the image changes in absolute value, it can be larger or smaller than the real object.
4. The image contains a reduction, a generalization. There may be a temporary panorama: unification, compression of events with a violation of the sequence, you can hear a symphony in one minute. Shifts in the depiction of duration are possible: an event drags on in memory, but it was only a minute, years can shrink in the imagination, and one day can stretch out.
5. The presentation may shift in color towards primary colors or become discolored altogether. More often, the images in memory fade, their intensity decreases, less often - the opposite.
6. Fragmentation of representational images: what is remembered better is what made the greatest impression, but the image remains holistic.
7. Generalization - it is not a specific chair that is represented, but in general; images are schematized.
Types of representations
Depending on the characteristics of the subject of presentation, there are two
main
types
:
visual
, behind which there is a concrete image, and
abstract-logical
, behind which there are abstract concepts (A. Richardson). Each of these types can have varying degrees of brightness, clarity and controllability.
The most common is the classification of visual representations according to modality
(B. G. Ananyev). It includes visual, olfactory, auditory, tactile, gustatory, kinesthetic, and organic perceptions.
The latter are ideas about the functional states of the body, individual organs and parts of the body. Here, the type of analyzer is used as the basis for classification.
Ideomotor representations can be identified as a separate type of representation.
– representations of movement. They are especially relevant for athletes, ballet dancers, dancers, and musicians, when immediately before an action they must imagine it in great detail, based on past experience.
In accordance with the two main forms of existence of matter
distinguish
two types of ideas
, such as
ideas about space and time
. Both are multimodal, but it is possible to highlight the reflection of spatial and temporal characteristics separately at the level of visual and kinesthetic analyzers.
Based on the temporal relevance of ideas, a classification of images into reproductive ones
and
anticipating
(anticipating) (J. Piaget). In turn, each of them can be: a) static (ideas of a stationary object); b) kinetic (ideas about different types of movement); c) transformative (reflection of transformations of objects known to man - from reflection of the final result to reflection of all stages of transformation of an object from the initial state to the final state).
The following basic operations can be performed with image-representations: mental rotation, large-scale transformations, various types of movement of objects, combining the component parts of the represented object, changing spatial orientation, increment, grouping, splitting.
A special group consists of information transcoding operations associated with changing an object. For example, to get an idea of the terrain using a map or to imagine a three-dimensional object as a projection on a plane.
Understanding representation as a process of operating with image-representations presupposes in this process the presence of separate mental operations.
All mental operations
can be divided into
three groups
(I. S. Yakimanskaya): 1) change in the process of imagining the position of an object or its parts (mental rotation, grouping, change in spatial orientation, mental movement of objects, etc.); 2) changes in the process of representing the structure of an object (scale transformations, changes in the representation of the dimension of objects, grouping of objects); 3) simultaneous changes in position and structure (increment, split, combination).
Representation as a process actively functions in such a mental phenomenon as projection. Projection (from the Latin projection - throwing forward) is a mental phenomenon of comprehension and generation of meanings, a mechanism of psychological defense, which consists in the conscious or unconscious transfer by the subject of his own properties and states to external objects; endowing other people with the characteristics of their character and behavior; carried out under the influence of the dominant needs, meanings and values of the subject. Determining personality characteristics by its projection is used in the projective method . The bias in the reflection of the world, provided by projection, can have both a protective, pathological, and creative, constructive character.
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Literature
- Shcherbatykh Yu. V. General psychology. - St. Petersburg: “Peter”, 2008.
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Representation images are classified on several grounds: the type of analyzers included in the image formation process; degree of generalization of images; the degree of volitional effort required to form an image; duration of saving images, etc.
Based on the type of analyzers included in the process of image formation, visual, auditory and motor representations are distinguished.
Visual representations reproduce the shape, dimensions, and color of an object. At the same time, in visual representations, one parameter of an object is usually highlighted, most often associated with the individual’s constant occupation. For example, an architect walking through a city will be more attracted to architectural elements than his companion, who is not directly related to urban planning. Accordingly, all this will be reflected in the content of the images of these people. The architect's imagery will provide better and more detailed representations of details related to architecture.
Figure 8.1 – Classification of views
Auditory representations reproduce the timbre, phonetics and intonation of sound objects. The quality and content of these images are also determined by the nature of professional activity.
Motor representations reproduce the movement of any part of the body. Such ideas cause abbreviations of the corresponding
muscle groups. It has been experimentally established that if such muscle contractions are somehow neutralized, then ideas become impossible. A similar picture is observed in relation to speech: if you imagine the process of pronouncing a word, it causes muscle contractions in the larynx.
Single representations are images of certain specific objects, while general representations are a generalized image of a whole group of homogeneous objects. For example, the image of a car
is a generalized image of representation, the image of one’s own car is a single image of representation.
Voluntary and involuntary ideas differ in that they arise on their own or at the request of the individual with the participation of the will. For example, going to a business meeting, a person consciously tries to imagine the future situation based on the information he has about the composition of the participants, their interests, the room where this meeting should take place, etc. The resulting idea will be arbitrary. But the image of the idea of the meeting that took place, which arose in the mind of a person in addition to his desire when going to sleep at night, is an involuntary idea.
According to the duration of existence, short-term and long-term ideas are distinguished.
Short-term representations provide ongoing activity; they exist for fractions of seconds. For example, in the process of pronouncing a phrase, a short-term idea arises that helps to construct this phrase.
Operational representations exist until the end of the problem solution.
Long-term representations are stored in long-term memory and are used periodically. They are usually professional representations. For example, an IT technology specialist will have such ideas as: program, algorithm, interface, printer, computer, etc.
Individual characteristics of representations.
Individual characteristics of representations are manifested in the predominance of any representation that people usually use when reproducing images of an object. As a rule, a person does not think about what type of ideas is leading in him. Meanwhile, awareness of this can provide significant assistance in mastering some knowledge, in successfully performing professional activities, in ensuring mutual understanding in business communication, etc. So, if the leading type of ideas in an individual are:
– auditory representations, then the reproduced image of the object emerges in his consciousness mainly in the form of the sound of words (for example, when preparing for an exam, an auditory student will be greatly helped by the sound images of the representation that arise in him in the form of fragments of lectures reproduced in the lecturer’s voice);
– visual representations, then when reproducing the material of a subject, visual pictures (fragments of pages of a note or textbook) come to his aid;
– motor representations, then, trying to remember or reproduce an object, the individual involves some motor acts (mental pronunciation, kinesthetic actions, etc.).
A person may have several leading types of ideas. Dynamics of ideas in the process of individual development
humans have not yet been sufficiently studied. Experimental data accumulated to date show that:
— a person’s first ideas appear at about the age of one and a half years;
— by two years, auditory-motor and speech perceptions rapidly develop. Ensuring rapid speech acquisition;
By the age of 5-6 years, visual concepts receive proper development (the child learns more about the world through visual images).
Ideas can be developed. To do this, it is necessary to accumulate perceptual information in a certain area. It is impossible, for example, to evoke an idea of the possible cause of a TV malfunction if a person has never studied its structure and principle of operation.
