The Difference Between Concrete Vs Abstract Thinking
Sequential thinking is processing information in orderly prescribed manner. It involves a step-by-step progression where the first step needs to be completed before then second step occurs. Concrete thinking refers to the process of comprehending and applying factual knowledge. It involves only those things which are visible and obvious allowing any individual to observe and understand. Abstract thinking goes beyond all the visible and present things to find hidden meanings and underlying purpose. Participants stood with either a light or heavy clipboard cradled in their arm, filling out surveys.
How significantly a condition impacts a person’s thinking skills can vary, especially in the case of autism spectrum disorders. The main disadvantage of abstraction is that highly abstract concepts are more difficult to learn, and might require a degree of mathematical maturity and experience before they can be assimilated. The property of redness and the relation sitting-on are therefore abstractions of those objects. Abstract things are sometimes defined as those things that do not exist in reality or exist only as sensory experiences, like the color red. That definition, however, suffers from the difficulty of deciding which things are real (i.e. which things exist in reality). For example, it is difficult to agree to whether concepts like God, the number three, and goodness are real, abstract, or both.
Students in math classes may work on such problems, more so as they age and master math basics. Concrete thinkers may also misunderstand or misinterpret certain styles of communication. For example, sarcasm and jokes may be confusing, since these rely on understanding and applying abstract ideas or plays on words.
Abstract thinking isn’t always easy, and it doesn’t always come naturally (especially for detail-oriented people like developers tend to be). Even something as simple as using your imagination counts as abstract thinking. You’re thinking about things and possibilities that don’t exist in a physical form, which makes the thought abstract. For example, a concrete thought would be thinking about your own dog. Abstract thoughts would be thinking about dogs in general, their relationship with your dog and with you, and how dogs fit into the bigger picture of your life and the world in general.
An analytical thinker can unpack a concept and separate it into different parts, and then look at each part individually while linking it back to the main concept. Analyzing people and concepts can be quite a useful skill, as you can often see what others miss. Thinking is not purely binary; abstract and concrete are just two of the main types of thinking. There are other types of thinkers as well, with many of them being an offshoot of abstract thinking.
While rote memorization is helpful, educators increasingly frown upon such strategies. The ability to understand the relationships between verbal and non-verbal ideas is also a part of the abstract reasoning. For example, using statistics to predict the outcome of an election is an example of abstract reasoning applied to a real-world problem.
On the other hand, abstract thinkers have a very specific concept of things.” I believe the reverse is true. The concrete thinker sees a person, the abstract thinker sees a species, Homo sapiens sapiens. While abstract thinking is based on ideas, concrete thinking is based on what the person sees as well as the facts. Development of skills in answering these “why” questions will require a base of other earlier skills in thinking.
Additionally, improvement in abstract thinking is also related to physical changes associated with the brain. Much of the current research in brain biology stresses the importance of the later development of the frontal area of the brain, a critical factor in abstract thinking. Research indicates that most of the Covid-19 abilities that we associate with abstract thinking are a function of the frontal lobe in the brain. This area of the brain does not fully develop until the early 20’s, explaining some of the difficulties with decision-making noted with teenagers.