1. Thinking Twice Fast Cognition, Slow Cognition, and the Challenge of Critical Thinking

2. Critical thinking in professional contexts  What is expert thinking?  How does ‘expert error’ happen?  What moderates expert error?

3. A Tale of Three Diagnoses

4. Vertigo  Dr. Dark  Dr. Hope  Dr. Sage

5. Vertigo  Dr. Dark

6. Vertigo  Dr. Dark  Dr. Hope  Dr. Sage

7. Otoliths and the Epley maneuver

8. Critical thinking in professional contexts  What is expert thinking?  How does ‘expert error’ happen?  What moderates expert error?

9. What is Expert Thinking?

10. Expert thinking / Novice thinking  Pattern recognition

11. Pattern recognition? Cognitive crystallizatio n

12. Routine Expertise / Flexible expertise  Explore analogies with systems they understand better.  Search for potential discrepancies in the analogy.  Access intuitive mental models based on visual and kinesthetic intuition.  Investigate the target system with extreme case arguments, pushing parameters to zero or infinity.  Construct a simpler problem of the same sort.

13. Routine Expertise / Flexible expertise

14. Fast cognition / Slow cognition Rapid pattern recognition and cognitive crystallization, quick intuitive assembly of interpretations Deliberate reasoning piecing together outputs of fast cognition and provoking further fast-cognition operations  “Thinking twice” – a dual processing model

15. Fast cognition / Slow cognition Black box (es) White box  “Thinking twice – a dual processing model

16. Dual processing in action  What to do? – Maybe this!  Will it work? – Imagine it!  Maybe not – What else to do?  (increasing elaborative processing) Recognition-Primed Decision Making

17. Familiarity zones Harvard Square Union Square Red Square

18. Familiarity zones Fast cognitionSlow cognition We live here Richly informed and highly responsive. Doesn’t have to work very hard to make interpretations. We visit here Considerably less informative but some resources. Works harder to piece together a reasonable account. We’re new here Helpful only in a generic way, ‘importing’ patterns from other settings Works very hard to get oriented.

19. Summary What is expert thinking?  Expert thinking / Novice thinking  Pattern recognition / Cognitive crystallization  Routine expertise / Flexible expertise  Fast cognition / Slow cognition  Black box(es) / White box  We live here / We visit here / We’re new here

20. How does ‘expert error’ happen?

21. Insights / illusions of fast cognition  A deliberate cognitive illusion

22. Insights / illusions of fast cognition  Natural cognitive illusions

23. Insights / illusions of fast cognition  Natural cognitive illusions

24. Insights / illusions of fast cognition  Natural cognitive illusions  A penny saved is worth more than a penny earned.

25. Insights / illusions of fast cognition  Natural cognitive illusions Survival rates versus morality rates

26. Insights / illusions of fast cognition  Natural cognitive illusions Sunk costs Opportunity costs Hindsight bias Confirmation bias

27. Insights / illusions of fast cognition  The grand illusion The click of closure

28. What moderates ‘expert error’?

29. Naïve expertise / critical expertise  Thinking Twice!  Alert Searching for anomalies  Skeptical Scanning for evidential weaknesses and counter evidence  Exploratory Seeking alternative interpretations

30. Abilities / Dispositions  Alert Searching for anomalies  Skeptical Scanning for evidential weaknesses and counter evidence  Exploratory Seeking alternative interpretations

31. Abilities / Dispositions  Key finding  The moderating function of the slow mind tends to be uncorrelated or only weakly correlated with measures of cognitive ability.

32. Familiarity zones Fast cognitionSlow cognition We live here Richly informed and highly responsive. Doesn’t have to work very hard to make interpretations. But needs to stay awake and monitor for mistakes. We visit here Considerably less informative but some resources. Works harder to piece together a reasonable account. But needs to watch out for the ‘at last’ effect. We’re new here Helpful only in a generic way, ‘importing’ patterns from other settings Works very hard to get oriented. But needs to watch out for grasping at straws.

33. Familiarity zones Fast cognitionSlow cognition We live here Richly informed and highly responsive. Doesn’t have to work very hard to make interpretations. But needs to stay awake and monitor for mistakes. We visit here Considerably less informative but some resources. Works harder to piece together a reasonable account. But needs to watch out for the ‘at last’ effect. We’re new here Helpful only in a generic way, ‘importing’ patterns from other settings Works very hard to get oriented. But needs to watch out for grasping at straws. Elsewhere and don't know it. Functions deceptively, creating an illusion of familiarity. Functions deceptively, allowing you to construct an interpretation that is wildly off. Dr. Dark

34. Summary How does ‘expert error’ happen / What moderates expert error? Insights / Illusions of fast cognition Naïve expertise / Critical expertise Abilities / Dispositions

35. Avoiding Dr. Dark Some Morals for Learning

36. Particular morals  Learn about troublesome cognitive illusions – framing effects, etc.  Cultivate deliberate critical patterns – e.g. efforts to tell counterstories, ask ‘what if not’  Foster reviews of thinking, as with the military ‘after action review’  … and so on

37. The B ig moral  Slow cognition is not just for building up fast cognition.  It has its own critical function that needs to be developed.  Slow cognition is not just an ability, a bundle of skills and strategies.  It is very much a disposition, a bundle of attitudes and alertness. Especially in its function of moderating expert error.

38. Think Twice!