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 and, concrete, abstract and/or thinking:
“Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems—but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems incredible.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)
“Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“O reason, reason, abstract phantom of the waking state, I had already expelled you from my dreams, now I have reached a point where those dreams are about to become fused with apparent realities: now there is only room here for myself.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)
“When a thinking person attains adulthood and develops a mature consciousness, he reluctantly feels himself in a trap from which there is no exit.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)