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Schema is odd one.

Thinking is the mental activity that uses various cognitive elements and processes that involves the manipulation of information. The core elements of thinking are

1. Mental representation – It is a coded internal sensation acquired by direct experiences through the sense organs or by indirect experiences such as narrations, pictures, etc. 

2. Concepts – They form the basis for all cognitive processes, acting as building blocks by connecting with each other to form more complex concepts. 

3. Schema – It is an internal representation that organizes knowledge about related concepts and relationships among them. 

4. Language – Mental representations, concept and schema are represented by language, for e.g., the word ‘cat’ is a symbol for a ‘cat’.

Stimuli that are similar to each other are perceived together compared to stimuli that are distinct from each other.

Our attention shifts from the original stimulus to another stimulus for a fraction of time and then comes back to the original stimulus.

Attention is the mental process of bringing few stimuli into the centre of awareness out of the many stimuli present.

Cognitive processes are those processes by which we become aware of and understand the world around us such as sensation, attention, perception, learning, memory, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, etc.

i. True

ii. False

iii. False

iv. True

v. True

vi. False

Perception is defined as the process of assigning meaning to information received about the environment based on the past experiences.

Thinking is the mental activity that makes use of ideas or symbols instead of overt activity. The types of thinking are (i) Perceptual (concrete) thinking, (ii) Conceptual (abstract) thinking (iii) Reflective thinking, (iv) Creative thinking.

The core elements in thinking are- 

(i) Mental representation – It is a coded internal sensation acquired by direct experiences through the sense organs or by indirect experiences such as narrations, pictures, etc. Mental representation is the mental imagery with the help of which the brain codes and stores the information. It is like a hypothetical internal cognitive symbol used by the brain to represent external reality. Example: a child is asked to imagine a peacock. The visual image of a peacock with its colourful plumage immediately comes to mind. This refers to “mental imagery” of an object.

(ii) Concepts – They form the basis for all cognitive processes, acting as building blocks by connecting with each other to form more complex concepts. Concepts involve extraction of some ‘idea’ on the basis of similarities and differences among the sensations. A concept is an idea which represents a class of objects, situations, etc which differentiates it from other classes of objects, situations, etc., for e.g. a child forms a mental image of a ‘dog’. He derives an idea of something similar in all examples of ‘dog’ that he has seen i.e. tail, fur, barking, etc. Thus, he has formed concept of dog. If he mistakenly identifies as a cat as a dog. he is corrected by others. So he tries to compare the mental images of dogs and cats. He has now learned and refined two concepts viz. dog and cat.

(iii) Schema – It is an internal representation that organizes knowledge about related concepts and relationships among them. Schema involves arranging many concepts in a particular system or organisation. It describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organises categories of information and the relationships among them. A child tries to organise the concepts that he has learned in a systematic way to generate a higher order understanding of patterns about information collected, for e.g. when a child visits a ‘zoo’ for the first time, images and concepts such as of different animals, caves/cages, etc., are activated in the brain simultaneously. Thus, he is forming the schema of ‘zoo.

Conclusion:- Mental representation is sensory experiences in the form of mental images in the brain. Many similar mental representations denote concepts while many concepts put in a particular relationship to each other is schema.

Creative thinking is characterised by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, etc. It is a way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh/novel perspective. In involves divergent thinking that focuses on exploration of ideas and generating many possibilities. It is referred to as “thinking outside of the box.” Researchers, poets, designers, film makers always think in a creative way

The four stages in creative thinking are- 

(i) Preparation – This involves formulating the problem and gathering information about it. Many tentative solutions are tried out and discarded. No progress seems to be made by the person.

(ii) Incubation – If the person does not get the required results, he/she may focus on things unrelated to that problem. The period helps to work out the problem without consciously thinking about it. Incubation period appears to be non-fruitful.

(iii) Illumination – After incubation, suddenly the correct solution appears to the person, due to which he/she experiences excitement. It seems that a solution has fallen into place.

(iv) Verification – The new solution may need to be evaluated a number of times. In most cases, minor changes will be required but sometimes it may demand a major overhaul of the entire process.

For e.g., A teacher asks the students to think of unusual uses for a bottle.

• The students will begin brainstorming. 
• The students will come up with many uses for e.g., to store liquids, to hold plants, etc. But these are not unusual uses. They will give up and focus on something else. 
• The students will suddenly find novel uses for the bottle e.g., in juggling etc. 
• The students will verify these solutions with their teacher.