Most living beings are designed to react to what happens to them in the present, so their survival requires a perceptive process that is oriented towards the immediate.

Learning, the result of direct experience and years of evolution of each species (phylogeny), is responsible for forging this capacity, which is necessary for the continuity of the individual and his group.

The human being, however, has the ability to abstract objective reality and give it its own meaning, through the mechanism of symbolization. Through this we create, imagine and communicate with each other; while exploring what is hidden behind the curtain of appearances.

In this article we will talk about the human symbolic thought , despite the fact that recently there has been an important controversy regarding the possibility that other species may have it.

What is symbolic thinking

Symbolic thought is the capacity of a living being to think beyond the situation in which it is present , thus generating abstract mental contents on which it projects its capacity of representation. In human beings it has been described that, under conditions of normative development, this ability begins at 18 months of age (coinciding with Jean Piaget’s pre-operational phase).

According to Piaget, at this stage (which covers the period between the ages of two and seven) the child begins to understand the role of others and his own, to create symbols to represent tangible objects and to trace the relationships between them.

However, the logical basis for creating cause and effect patterns at a non-immediate level would still be lacking, so your brain will have to keep maturing until the next stage to achieve it (formal operations).

Through symbolic thinking we can talk about what happened in the past or what we hypothesize will happen in the future , evoking memories and elaborating hypotheses respectively. Thus, we are able to move beyond what the senses grasp, revealing a universe whose fabric is embroidered by the intangible.

Symbolic thinking in humans

We will now proceed to detail some of the expressions of symbolic thought, necessary to understand the human being in his totality. Language, culture, play, drawing (or painting) and mathematics will be taken into account.

1. Writing and speaking: language

The use of words is a basic example of symbolization , since the verbal keys with which we describe reality are not at all what they point to, but rather their translation into abstract and consensual terms. Thus, when we read a book, we mentally access the scenarios described in its pages, but even if there is the capacity to clearly imagine each of its passages, at no time are we physically present in them.

In addition to reading, symbolic thinking plays a decisive role in writing. Every universe that takes shape on paper has been, in the first place, created in the mind of whoever stops it with his hand.

Through the written word and the use of letters, which symbolically represent the sounds of speech (and these in turn the real objects to which they refer), a process of abstraction is configured for which this type of thinking is required. The meaning of letters and sounds is arbitrary, and is only given by social consensus .

This applies to the understanding of objects, but through language it is also possible to symbolize attributes or other intangible aspects, such as justice or goodness (which have an obvious cultural component). In this sense, fables describe stories that contain learning about issues relevant to life according to the historical moment (moralising end), and are part of traditions that are transmitted in an intergenerational way.

2. Culture and society

The culture to which an individual belongs is based on the human being’s capacity for symbolization. It is estimated that the cognitive revolution, from which we were able to build knowledge that did not depend on the immediate, happened at some point in the past (between 30,000 and 70,000 years ago). The first known representation is an ivory carving with a human body and a lion’s head found in Stadel (Germany), which is considered to be pioneering evidence of our ability to imagine (and create) something that does not exist.

When human groups were small, with tribes of only a few dozen subjects, it was easy to have knowledge about those who were part of them and their corresponding relationships. The capacity of human beings to think in an abstract way allowed the expansion of social networks , thus creating broad communities that would require novel methods to subsist (such as livestock and agriculture).

It is not known exactly how it could have happened, but the hypothesis of a genetic mutation in homo sapiens is postulated, which propitiated a cortical development (neocortex) of sufficient magnitude for the formation of thoughts and abstract concepts that would allow life in community. In order to unite bonds between such a high number of subjects sharing a common space, stories and laws about abstract realities were elaborated that gave a greater sense of belonging. And from this, the great cities of today.

Culture is subject to a series of rules and traditions that are learned without the need for direct experience with them. This is done by resorting to popular wisdom, the legal framework, myths and stereotypes; which are the cause of certain groups having more rights and/or duties (by lineage or other non-objectifiable achievements). All of them are the product of symbolic thinking, and evident examples of how this can condition the destiny of human beings.

3. Symbolic play

Symbolic play is very important for the development of the first social relations , and an unavoidable opportunity to practice the uses and customs of the society in which we live. That is why children often resort to such playful activities, in which they act by reproducing the roles of the adults with whom they live on a daily basis. This is one of the mechanisms through which society maintains its symbols, and even toys are designed for this purpose.

Symbolic play involves representing trades or pretending to be all sorts of characters, often requiring the participation of at least two children. Properties are also attributed to inanimate objects (a box can become a mobile phone, for example), which requires cognitive resources such as analogy (matching two different objects through their shared properties, such as their shape or size) and abstraction.

This form of play involves training of symbolic thinking, which is located very especially in the frontal lobe, and allows the development of social skills needed to interact successfully with the environment.

4. Drawing and painting

In Borneo (Indonesia) is located the oldest known sample of cave painting, dated in 38,000 BC. Although they are usually human handprints printed on the walls, there are also everyday hunting scenes and certain symbols whose meaning is unknown. These findings, beyond their undeniable relevance as artistic pieces, contribute to infer at what point in history we start thinking through abstractions.

The fact is that the drawing is a graphic representation of realities that, very often, are not present at the moment of being shaped. Drawing or colour served to transmit a stamp of identity to different societies and to record their distinctive characteristics, extending their legacy far beyond their physical survival (which often ended after periods of great famine, extermination or pandemic disease). A very recent example is found in flags.

In modern times, drawing is still used to represent ideas located only in the mind of the executor . An architect, for example, uses his knowledge of physics and design to put down on paper the idea he has had about a new building or other type of structure. And given that this had never been built before (it is not a mere reproduction), it is a symbolic and abstract exercise that requires superior cognitive processes.

The same can be said of modern works of art, many of which do not reflect reality, but rather symbolic abstractions of it.

5. Mathematics

Math is a universal language. Although in its elementary forms it refers to a simple matter of degree or proportion, a deep knowledge of it requires an enormous level of abstraction (through which to understand the tacit relationships observed in nature). That is why mathematics is present in many of the sciences, such as physics or computer science .

Some mathematical operations cannot even be inferred from experience with reality. This is common in theoretical physics, which depends on the integration of knowledge about formulas and theories for the purpose of deducing hypotheses about how the universe works, without having the opportunity to observe them with one’s own eyes. Through it we go deeper, from symbolization, where the naked senses do not reach.

Bibliographic references:

  • Landy, D. and Goldstone, R.L. (2007). How Abstract is Symbolic Thought? Journal of Experimental Psychology, 33(4), 720 – 733.
  • Tattersall, I. (2016). A tentative framework for acquisition of language and modern human cognition. Journal of Anthropological Sciences, 94, 157 – 166.