Educating Intuition

Every day we make intuitive decisions—from the mundane choice of what clothes to wear to more important issues such as which new car "feels right" or which person would be "good" for a particular job. To varying degrees, logic plays a role in these decisions, but at a certain point all of us rely on intuition, our sixth sense. Is this the right way to decide? Should we trust our gut feelings? When intuition conflicts with logic, what should we do? In Educating Intuition, Robin M. Hogarth lays bare this mysterious process so fundamental to daily life by offering the first comprehensive overview of what the science of psychology can tell us about intuition—where it comes from, how it works, whether we can trust it. From this literature and his own research, Hogarth finds that intuition is a normal and important component of thought that has its roots in processes of tacit learning. Environment, attention, experience, expertise, and the success of the scientific method all form part of Hogarth's perspective on intuition, leading him to the surprising—but natural—conclusion that we can educate our sixth sense. To this end he offers concrete suggestions and exercises to help readers develop their intuitive skills and habits for learning the "right" lessons from experience. Artfully and accessibly combining cognitive science, the latest research in psychology, and Hogarth's own observations, Educating Intuition eschews the vague approach to the topic that has become commonplace and provides instead a wholly engaging and practical guide to enhancing our intuitive skills.

From Mark Quirk, recipient of the 2006 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine's Excellence in Education award, comes the latest on improving medical education. In this volume, Quirk explores metacognition, the idea that we can think about the way we or other people think, and thus gain a better understanding of ourselves, our own cognitive processes, and the patients we seek to help. Written for medical educators--from medical school faculty to residents--this book will help you teach your students and interns how to extrapolate lessons from experience and integrate learning and practice. It will help them to think more clearly and thoroughly about what they read, hear, and learn on a day-to-day basis and thus become more informed and humanistic doctors.

This book explores the science behind intuitive decision-making in business, and shows how people's innate capacity for intuition can be nurtured and strengthened to maximize performance. We are all familiar with those perplexing situations when we think we 'just know' without knowing how or why we know. In professional life it might be the job candidate's CV that checks all the boxes but somehow doesn't stack-up: should we perform some due diligence and dig a little deeper? In personal life it could be the apartment that we're looking to rent that just felt right the minute we walked through the front door: should we trust our hunch and grab it while we can? What if time is of the essence? What if there isn't any more data to be had in the time available? In this volume, Eugene Sadler-Smith examines why situations like these often leave us in a quandary, and why these decisions so often leave us in two minds. He reveals that metaphorically speaking, we have two minds in one brain: an 'analytical mind' and an 'intuitive mind', which sometimes come to quite different conclusions about what we ought to do in those consequential decisions that permeate our professional and personal lives. Rather than thinking of our intuitive and analytical minds in constant battle with each other, we might instead think of them as two information-processing systems that have evolved to complement each other. The main idea of this book is that our analytical mind evolved to 'solve' whilst our intuitive mind evolved to 'sense'. Neither is infallible, and our intuitions can be both flawed and marvellous at the same time. The author's clear and detailed explanation of the science behind intuition reveals how we can make intelligent use of our intuition to sense and solve our way through a world that is fast-moving, complex, and uncertain.

This groundbreaking interdisciplinary Handbook showcases the latest intuition research, integrated in a framework that reconciles various views on what intuition is and how it works. The internationally renowned group of contributors presents their findings in five areas. Part I explores different facets of the intuiting process and its outcome, the role of consciousness and affect, and alternative ways of capturing intuition. Part II deals with its function in expertise, strategy, entrepreneurship, and ethics. Part III outlines intuitive decision making in critical occupations, the legal profession, medicine, the film and wine industries, and teaching. Part IV pushes the boundaries of our current understanding by exploring the possibility of non local intuition, based on the principles of quantum holography. Part V investigates different ways of developing intuitive skills. This cutting-edge, comprehensive Handbook will prove essential for academics and research students of the social sciences, particularly management, psychology, sociology, entrepreneurship, leadership, team dynamics, HR and training. It will also be an invaluable resource for industry professionals searching for soft-core methods to increase productivity and creativity/innovation, to improve leadership and organizational climate, or to adopt new staff training and development methods.

Duggan shows how strategic intuition lies at the heart of humanity's greatest achievements: the scientific and computer revolutions, women's suffrage, the civil rights movement, modern art and much more.

This engaging overview of the academic theory of intuition and its cultural, psychological and philosophical background is essential reading for anyone interested in personal development and decision-making.

Human decisions, especially in management and personnel selection, are based on making judgments about people analytically and intuitively. Yet in business and scientific contexts, judgments are expected to be based on a rational analysis rather than intuitions or emotions. Intuition is often seen as something mystical that should not be trusted and thus eliminated from human decision-making. Our empirical and theoretical research shows that this is impossible when people are dealing with people. Instead, intuitions and emotions have significant power in the decision-making process. Neuroscience even shows that humans are incapable of switching off their emotions or intuitions when making decisions. Therefore, intuition and emotions as evolutionary achievements of human beings should be looked at more closely to use the wisdom they offer. This book provides an insight into the current state of research on rational-analytical procedures in personnel selection and complements this with research on intuitions and emotions in personnel diagnostics. By integrating scientifically verifiable rational-analytical decision-making procedures with the inner experiential knowledge of people, this book bridges two complementary ways of recognizing and making good decisions. It demonstrates how intuitions are developed and used in different fields of practice and cultures and how scientific research results from rational-analytical and intuitive-emotional selection procedures are successfully integrated by practitioners.

From Mark Quirk, recipient of the 2006 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine's Excellence in Education award, comes the latest on improving medical education. In this volume, Quirk explores metacognition, the idea that we can think about the way we or other people think, and thus gain a better understanding of ourselves, our own cognitive processes, and the patients we seek to help. Written for medical educators--from medical school faculty to residents--this book will help you teach your students and interns how to extrapolate lessons from experience and integrate learning and practice. It will help them to think more clearly and thoroughly about what they read, hear, and learn on a day-to-day basis and thus become more informed and humanistic doctors.