CONTENTS
The Need for Critical Thinking Skills
The Twin Pillars of Knowing and Thinking
A Working Definition of Critical Thinking
What’s Critical about Critical Thinking?
Changing How People Think: Should It Be Done?
Commercialization of Schools as a Threat to Critical Thinking
Empirical Evidence That Thinking Can Be Improved
Is Critical Thinking a Byproduct of a Good Education?
Learning to Think Critically: A Four-Part Model
A Skills Approach to Critical Thinking
The Disposition for Effortful Thinking and Learning
Intelligence and Thinking Skills
The Measurement of Intelligence
Becoming a Better Thinker: The Quick and Easy Way
Two Types of Thinking—Fast and Slow
Thinking as a Biological Process
Thinking as Imagery and Silent Speech
Critical Thinking: Hollywood Style
Becoming a Better Thinker: A Skills Approach
THINKING STARTS HERE: MEMORY AS THE MEDIATOR OF COGNITIVE PROCESSES |
Memory: The Acquisition, Retention, and Retrieval of Knowledge
Memories are Stored in Associative Networks
What We Believe About Memory is (Mostly) Wrong
General Principles to Improve Learning and Remembering
Strategies that Promote Learning
The Constructive Nature of Memory
Vivid, Dramatic, Personal, and Familiar
Long-Term Accuracy is Sometimes Excellent
Underlying Representation and Surface Structure
The Role of Inference in Advertisements
Using Analogies as an Aid to Understanding
Definitions and the Control of Thought
The Power of Labels and Categories
Language: Tool or Master of Thought?
The Direction and Misdirection of Thought
Emotional Language and Name Calling
Ambiguity, Vagueness, and Equivocation
Framing with Leading Questions and Negation
Comprehension: The Reason for Language
Spatial Representation of Thought
General Guidelines and Principles
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
“If, Then” Reasoning in Everyday Contexts
Permission and Obligation Schemata
“If, Then” Reasoning in Legal Contexts
“If, Then” Reasoning as Therapy for Children with Attention Deficit Disorder
Circle Diagrams for Determining Validity
Syllogisms in Everyday Contexts
Circle Diagrams can Capture Complex Relationships
Changing Attitudes with Syllogisms
Common Errors in Syllogistic Reasoning
Reasoning in Everyday Contexts
Diagramming the Structure of an Argument
Guidelines for Diagramming Arguments
Using Argument Structure when Writing and Speaking
Evaluating the Strength of an Argument
Acceptable and Consistent Premises
Premises that Support the Conclusion
A Template for Writing Sound Arguments
How People Reach Different Conclusions from the Same Evidence
Distinguishing between Opinion, Reasoned Judgment, and Fact
Understanding Hypothesis Testing
Explanation, Prediction, and Control
Inductive and Deductive Methods
Independent and Dependent Variables
Science versus Science Fiction
Isolation and Control of Variables
Three-Stage Experimental Designs
Using the Principles of Isolation and Control
Prospective and Retrospective Research
Experience is an Expensive Teacher
Occult Beliefs and the Paranormal
Thinking as an Intuitive Scientist
Probabilistic Nature of the World
It’s a Miracle (or Maybe Just Statistics)
Factors Affecting Judgments about Likelihood and Uncertainty
Computing Probabilities in Multiple Outcome Situations
Conjunction Error—Applying the “And Rule”
Cumulative Risks—Applying the “Or Rule”
Making Probabilistic Decisions
Combining Information to Make Predictions
The Problem of False Positives
A Framework for Decision Making
Good Decisions and Subjective Utility
Descriptive and Prescriptive Processes
Pitfalls and Pratfalls in Decision Making
Failure to Seek Disconfirming Evidence
Wishful Thinking (Pollyanna Principle)
Assessing Desirable and Undesirable Consequences
Post-decision Commitment and Evaluation
Well-Defined and Ill-Defined Problems
Problem Planning and Representation
Multiple Statements of the Goal
Representation of the Problem Space
Select the Best Representation
Generalization and Specialization
Random Search and Trial-and-Error
Functional Fixedness and Mental Set
Misleading and Irrelevant Information
Creative Genius or Pedestrian Process?
Sensitivity, Synergy, and Serendipity
Creativity as Investment Theory: Buy Low; Sell High
Creativity as a Cognitive Process
Stretching and Rejecting Paradigms
The Problem of Problem Definition
Selecting Relevant Information
Generation, Exploration, and Evaluation
The Person, the Problem, the Process
Persistence, Conscientiousness, and Curiosity
Strategies for Creative Thinking
Crovitz’s Relational Algorithm
Which Thinking Skill or Skills will Get You to Your Goal?
Can Critical Thinking Save the World?
