INTELLECTUAL OR

MENTAL DEVELOPMENT
The development of the
mental abilities and
capacities which helps an
individual to adjust his
behaviour to the ever
changing environmental
conditions or to accomplish
a task that needs complex
cognitive abilities is referred
to as intellectual or mental
development
 Areas of Mental
Development
The following are the major areas of mental development

1 . Sensation and Perception

2 . Concept formation
3 . Attention and Interest
4 . Development of Imagination
5 . Language Development
6 . Development of Memory
7 . Development of Problem
solving ability
1 . SENSATION AND
PERCEPTION
Sensation is the elementary impression
gathered through sense organs.

The elementary impressions gathered

by sesnse organs when interpreted by
giving defenite meaning in the light of
the effects of past experience is called
perception
• Sensation is sensory impression while perception is the interpreted form of
sensory impression.
• While sensation depends mainly on the sense organs , in perception brain also
plays a major role.
• Sensation and perception are two aspects of a single process.Though we can
explain them seperately, we cannot experience them seperately in actual
situations .
 2 . CONCEPT
FORMATION
Concepts are the results of our sensational and
perceptual experiences. It is the generalised
mental image of the objects, phenomena or
events perceived earlier. It stands for a general
class and not for a particular object,phenomenon
or event . It is generalized idea firmed about
them,on the basis of similarities or commonalities
in attributes.This helps in understanding the
meaning and nature of a specific set of objects,
phenomena or events that possess those
commom attributes
The process of concept formation has four important phases .They are
Sensation , Perception , Abstraction and Generalization.
• Meaninful sensation lead to perception
• Perception provide oppurtunities for getting mental images of the things or
phenomena.The mind analyses these images and synthesizes them with a
view to find out what is common to all, neglecting individual differences.This
process of identifying similarities and fusing them is called abstraction
After making such observations leading to abstraction for a number of times the
child is able to form a general idea about the set observed on the basis of the
common characteristics or attributes possessed by all the numbers of that set.This
genrralisation leads to the formation of a concept
 3 . ATTENTION AND
INTEREST
• Attention can be defined as a process which compels an
individual to select some particular stimulus according
to his interest and attitude,out of the multiplicity of
stimuli present in the environment.
• Attention is not any specific mental power that
makes
the selection possible,but it is just the process of
selection itself
• Interest is a motivating force that impels one for giving
intense attention to an activity.
• Interest is a motivating force that impelse one for giving
intense attention to an activity
• Interest is the mother of attention, and attention is
interest in action.Both are indispensable factors of child
development
4 . DEVELOPMENT OF
IMAGINATION Imagination is based on
images.When one closes his eyes
and forms a mental picture of a
distant friend,he gets a visual
image.When he get a mental
replica the friend’s voice , that is
an auditory image .A mental
picture is called an ‘imagery’
 5 . LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
Language development is an intrinsic part
of intellectual development which reflects
cognitive achievements of the child.One of
the main functions of language is to
facilitate communication.Language is also
intimately associated with cognitive
functions like thinking, reasoning,problem
solving,etc .Speech and vocabulary are two
of the important areas in language
development
 6 . DEVELOPMENT OF
MEMORY
Human beings are endowed with higher
intellectual abilities.Memory is one such
special attribute of man .At birth there is
little memory .The child shows signs of
memory from the early childhood .The
memory which the child possesses during
his young age,is generally rote memory.He
enjoys repetition and seldom uses logic
and insight in memorizing a thing .
7 .DEVELOPMENT OF PROBLEM SOLVING
ABILITY
Life of an individual is always confronted with so
many problems.A problem means an obstruction or
difficulty that one faces while proceeding in a
desired direction.He has to remove the obstruction
or difficulty that one faces while proceeding in a
desired direction.He has to remove the obstruction
to reach the goal.Inorder to solve the problem he
has to make use of his power for thinking and
reasoning.As such ,problem solving ability depends
upon the development of thinking and reasoning