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:
“To step over the low wall that divides
Road from concrete walk above the shore
Brings sharply back something known long before
The miniature gaiety of seasides.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“A work of art is an abstract or epitome of the world. It is the result or expression of nature, in miniature. For, although the works of nature are innumerable and all different, the result or the expression of them all is similar and single.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the UN and what it means clearly. Everything will be all right—you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction, and see it as a drawing they made themselves.”
—Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961)