Concrete and Abstract Thinking
Jean Piaget uses the terms "concrete" and "formal" to describe the different types of learning. Concrete thinking involves facts and descriptions about everyday, tangible objects, while abstract (formal operational) thinking involves a mental process.
| Concrete idea | Abstract idea |
|---|---|
| Heavy things sink | It will sink if its density is greater than the density of the liquid. |
| You breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide | Gas exchange takes place between the air in the alveoli and the blood |
| Plants get water through their roots | Water diffuses through the cell membrane of the root hair cells... |
Read more about this topic: Abstract Object
Famous quotes containing the words concrete, abstract and/or thinking:
“Don’t feel guilty if you don’t immediately love your stepchildren as you do your own, or as much as you think you should. Everyone needs time to adjust to the new family, adults included. There is no such thing as an “instant parent.”
Actually, no concrete object lies outside of the poetic sphere as long as the poet knows how to use the object properly.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“What persuades men and women to mistake each other from time to time for gods or vermin is ideology. One can understand well enough how human beings may struggle and murder for good material reasons—reasons connected, for instance, with their physical survival. It is much harder to grasp how they may come to do so in the name of something as apparently abstract as ideas. Yet ideas are what men and women live by, and will occasionally die for.”
—Terry Eagleton (b. 1943)
“I’m darned if I understand you city folks. Always rushing, rushing. Always thinking about the future. No wonder you have stomach trouble.”
—James Poe (1921–1980)