Visual-figurative thinking is one of the types of thinking, along with visual-effective and conceptual thinking.
In its simplest form, visual-figurative thinking occurs mainly in preschoolers, i.e. at the age of four or seven. The connection between thinking and practical actions, although they retain, is not as close, direct and immediate as before. In the course of the analysis and synthesis of a cognizable object, the child does not necessarily and by no means always have to touch the object that interests him with his hands. In many cases, systematic practical manipulation of the object is not required, but in all cases it is necessary to clearly perceive and visualize this object. In other words, preschoolers think only in visual images and do not yet master concepts.
The absence of concepts among preschoolers was clearly revealed in the experiments of the Swiss psychologist J. Piaget.
Children around the age of seven are shown two absolutely identical and equal in volume balls made of dough. The child carefully examines both presented objects and says that they are equal. Then, in front of the subjects, one of the balls is turned into a cake. Children themselves can see that not a single piece of dough was added to this flattened ball, but simply changed shape. However, the subjects believe that the amount of dough in the cake has increased.
The fact is that the visual-figurative thinking of children is still directly and completely subordinated to their perception, and therefore they cannot yet be distracted, abstracted with the help of concepts from some of the most striking properties of the object under consideration. When thinking about this cake, the children look at it and see that it takes up more space (more space) on the table than the ball. Their thinking, proceeding in the form of visual images (following perception), leads to the conclusion that there is now more dough in the cake than in the ball.
Visual thinking and imagination
Visual-figurative thinking is related to imagination, but differs from it. Visual-figurative thinking deals with real objects, a real process. And imagination is the reconstruction of the desired image from figurative memory.