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thought
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Also known as: thinking, thought process
Written by
Robert J. Sternberg
IBM Professor of Psychology and dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University. Author of Thinking Styles, The Triarchic Mind, and others.
Robert J. Sternberg,
W. Edgar Vinacke
Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1963–84. Author of The Psychology of Thinking.
W. Edgar Vinacke•All
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thought, covert symbolic responses to stimuli that are either intrinsic (arising from within) or extrinsic (arising from the environment). Thought, or thinking, is considered to mediate between inner activity and external stimuli. In everyday language, the word thinking covers several distinct psychological activities. It is sometimes a synonym for “tending to believe,” especially with less than full confidence (“I think that it will rain, but I am not sure”). At other times it denotes the degree of attentiveness (“I did it without thinking”) or whatever is in consciousness, especially if it refers to something outside the immediate environment (“It made ...(100 of 6350 words)

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