Abstract And Concrete
Sequential thinking is processing information in orderly prescribed manner. It involves a step-by-step progression where the first step needs to be completed before then second step occurs. Concrete thinking refers to the process of comprehending and applying factual knowledge. It involves only those things which are visible and obvious allowing any individual to observe and understand. Abstract thinking goes beyond all the visible and present things to find hidden meanings and underlying purpose. Participants stood with either a light or heavy clipboard cradled in their arm, filling out surveys.
A physical object is considered concrete if it is a particular individual that occupies a particular place and time. However, in the secondary sense of the term 'abstraction', this physical object can carry materially abstracting processes. For example, record-keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.) which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed in containers. According to Schmandt-Besserat 1981, these clay containers contained tokens, the total of which were the count of objects being transferred.
Students in math classes may work on such problems, more so as they age and master math basics. Concrete thinkers may also misunderstand or misinterpret certain styles of communication. For example, sarcasm and jokes may be confusing, since these rely on understanding and applying abstract ideas or plays on words.
Abstract thinking isn’t always easy, and it doesn’t always come naturally (especially for detail-oriented people like developers tend to be). Even something as simple as using your imagination counts as abstract thinking. You’re thinking about things and possibilities that don’t exist in a physical form, which makes the thought abstract. For example, a concrete thought would be thinking about your own dog. Abstract thoughts would be thinking about dogs in general, their relationship with your dog and with you, and how dogs fit into the bigger picture of your life and the world in general.
An analytical thinker can unpack a concept and separate it into different parts, and then look at each part individually while linking it back to the main concept. Analyzing people and concepts can be quite a useful skill, as you can often see what others miss. Thinking is not purely binary; abstract and concrete are just two of the main types of thinking. There are other types of thinkers as well, with many of them being an offshoot of abstract thinking.
These defining aspects of human intelligence are all the result of the faculty to ‘abstract’ – the unique ability of the human mind to organize information beyond the immediate sensory reality. As we constantly face billions of bits of information streaming in from our senses, our brain must recast this maelstrom into simpler structures. Research in artificial intelligence suggests that even the best of our current algorithms struggle to handle the complexity of everyday, real-life problems.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. A National Science lockdown Foundation-funded team will use artificial intelligence to speed up discoveries in physics, astronomy, and neuroscience. MIT researchers reported in the June 21 issue of Nature that they have pinpointed how and where abstract thoughts are represented in the brain. One of the simplest ways to use abstract thinking to solve a problem is to reframe the question you’re trying to answer. You might already be thinking in an abstract way without even knowing it.
There are mental disorders that can make a person think more concretely. Most people do have some form of abstract thinking, as thinking in only literal terms is a serious social impairment. It's more difficult to associate and relate when you think of everything very specifically, have difficulty empathizing with or understanding others, can only see what's in front of you, and so on.