Read the following text and get ready to discuss it. There have been different ideas put forward on the origins of thinking - how it starts in the first place

There have been different ideas put forward on the origins of thinking - how it starts in the first place. Freud (1900) thought that thinking originated from the need to find ways to satisfy biological urges. By association, images of objects which satisfied needs like hunger would arise when an infant was hungry, and the thinking would arise from the need to make the internal image into reality, in the form of mechanisms to control movement in order to achieve a goal.

Piaget (1952) on the other hand, saw thinking as arising from a biological process of adaptation to the environment. The infant would develop its understanding of the world about it by forming internal representations or schemata*. These would not only enable the child to direct its current behaviour so that it could adapt successfully to its environment, but would also provide a basis for future actions in new circumstances. These schemata were being continually developed as the child's experience grew, through a twin process of assimilating, or absorbing, new information, and adjusting the schema to fit new kinds of experiences - a process known as accommodation.

Dewey (1933) saw thinking as something which arises when we have a mismatch or discrepancy between what we expect to happen and what really happens. Many of the things which we do are done quite automatically: if you see a pen in front of you and you want to write something, you would just reach out, take hold of the pen, and very probably think no more about it. The behaviour and the mental processes underlying it are habitual and don't involve thinking. But if there was a discrepancy - say you reached out for the pen but your fingers closed on nothing - then you would certainly be likely to think about it! In fact, if you couldn't find an explanation, you would be likely to think about it quite a lot - it would form a problem to be solved. Dewey's theory is known as the trouble theory of thought - the idea that thinking happens when there is a mismatch between what we expect, and what we actually find.

Notes:

*Schemata – a way of representing knowledge in the mind, whereby the representation of a particular topic includes information, memories, skills and plans for the future action.

6. Answer the following questions to the text:

1. How many theories concerning the origins of thinking are mentioned in the text?

2. Who thought that thought that thinking originated from the need to find ways to satisfy biological urges?

3. How did Piaget see thinking?

4. What is a schemata?

5. Whose theory is called a “trouble theory of thought”?

7. Say whether the following statements are true or false:

1. There have been different ideas put forward on the origins of thinking.

2. Freud thought that thinking originated from the need to find ways to satisfy biological urges.

3. Piaget saw thinking as arising from a scientific process of studying the environment.

4. According to Piaget an infant develops its understanding of the world by forming internal representations.

5. Dewey thought that thinking arose when people had a discrepancy between their expectations and reality.

6. The behaviour and the mental processes underlying it are habitual and don't involve thinking.

7. Freud’s theory is known as the trouble theory of thought.

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