The article presents three lines of theoretical and experimental research A.M Matyushkin and his scientific school. The first line is connected with the study of motivational-emotional regulation of thinking, the development of the idea of ​​the subject's activity in the formulation and solution of thinking tasks, his cognitive activity. The second line is devoted to the study of intellectual, creative, personal possibilities of subject. The third line is aimed at studying the conditions under which it becomes possible to a real creative thinking, opening the new (subjectively and objectively). 

In the article is submitted the comparative analysis of the problem of understanding and research of the creative thinking, describing three approaches: the personal meanings theory of thinking (O.K. Tikhomirov), the theory of problem situations (A.M. Matjushkin), approach of Ya.A. Ponomarev. The affinity of maintenance of these theories is shown in aspect of statement of researching questions to study the creative thinking and their decisions.