Conceptual blockbusting--chap6 Alternate thinking languages

The well-armed problem-finder/solver is fluent in many mental languages and is able to use them interchangeably to record information, communicate with the unconscious, and consciously manipulate.

Visual thinking

a) Perceptual imagery, is sensory experience of the physical world; it is what one sees and records in his brain

People see poorly for several reasons: 1) Over saturation of input; 2) Lak of motivation

You can learn to see better through conscious effort. One way of rapidly developing your seeing ability is to engage in activities where you must reproduct things you have seen (such as drawing)

b) Mental imagery, which is constructed in the mind and utilizes information recorded from perceptual imagery

Two aspects are important: 1) Clarity: how sharp and filled with details are the images 2) Control: how well can you manipulate them

c) Graphic imagery, imagery that is sketched, doodled, drawn, or otherwise put down in a written communicable form, either to aid in your own process of thinking or to aid in communication with others

Other sensory languages

Smell, sound, taste, and touch are extremely important to problem-solvers for three reasons:

1) Since they are low on the thinking prestige list in our culture they can lead you to innovative and overlooked solutions

2) They are necessary for the solutions of problems in which smell, sound, taste, and touch are involved

3) They augment visual imagery and each other to vastly increase the clarity of one's total imagery

Problem-solving specialties:

1) Analysis-Synthesis

Analysis refers to the separation of the whole into its parts so as to discover the characteristics of these parts and their relationship to each other and to the whole, to develop an understanding of the behavior of the whole as a function of its parts.

Synthesis refers to the putting together of parts into a whole. The purpose of synthesis is to come up with a construct to satify the goal.

2) Convergence-Divergence

Convergent thinking focuses on an answer.

Divergent thinking refers to the process of generation of ideas, concepts, and approaches.

3) Deduction-Induction

4) Jung and MBTI