Maria A. Perfilova

This article examines the relationship between different aspects of cognitive development: formal-logical thinking, dialectical thinking, imagination, and cyclic representations. The findings of their research allow the authors to claim that there are two pairs of relationships which can conditionally be called the “standard cluster” (cyclic representations and formal-logical thinking) and the “cluster of transformation” (the action of mediation and image activation within the imagination). This means that the understanding of the world around us and the creation of something new turn out to be not alternatives, but mutually reinforcing tasks. Dialectical thinking acts as a psychological mechanism for understanding consistent patterns and the creation of new things. The article concludes that developmental processes should be the most essential part of education. Creative thinking will develop provided that the processes of development are given to children as a problem that must be solved and not as information that must be learned. Consequently, children will simultaneously comprehend the world around them and learn to create something within it.