Thinking and reasoning
Thinking is the highest mental process related with knowledge. When it is oriented towards an objective, rather than wandering about, thinking is called reasoning. Two categories of reasoning are decision making and problem solving. Thinking can be studied from different points of view: experiments on problem solving, the making of inferences, and the use of analogies are carried out, but real life events such as those occurring in game playing that involve complex decisions, like playing chess, are also examined. Human thought can be simulated with computers using programs endowed with 'artificial intelligence.'
The way of thinking of a person and his beliefs are important influences on his behavior. Distress is often caused by behaviors that can be traced to faulty thought and belief systems. When the cognitive process of the person is corrected, the form in which that person construes the world is amended, and he can understand and deal with life's problems in a better way. Therefore, the study of thinking is not only of theoretical, but also of practical interest since it can help find the causes and cures of mental disorders.
The elementary unit of thought is the concept, or idea, which is a description of the important properties of a category. Things in the world form natural groups and categories. For example, we easily distinguish what is animated from what it is not, and animals from men. Anybody can tell birds from other kinds of animals. The word 'bird' is the name of a concept, the concept that encompasses all the animals that we consider as birds.
Concepts can also describe things not found in the real world, ideal objects of which the classical example is the unicorn. Unicorns do not exist, or we may say that exist in a world that it is not the real world -- the world of the imaginary. However, a unicorn has some defined properties that allow us to distinguish a unicorn from other imaginary beasts.
According to the classical view, a concept is formed of all characteristics that distinguish an object category. The formation of a concept (e.g., in a child) amounts to find which are those distinguishing characteristics. For example, we can say in a very elementary way that birds are animals that fly, sing, and build nests in trees.
Another approach is that category members tend to share properties, but these properties may not be necessary or sufficient to determine category membership. For example, an ostrich does not fly, sing, or build nests in trees, but it has other properties that allow us to recognize it as a bird. This can be called a 'probabilistic' approach, and it is the one currently prevailing. Under this view, concept formation consists in learning what is more typical of the members of a category, and not in preparing an all-or-none list of characteristics. Furthermore, this view is consistent with the fact that sometimes even experts are unable to provide such a list.
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