The development of critical thinking tips

Critical thinking is often perceived by us as something everyday. When answering the question of what it is, we recall, at best, fragmentary characteristics and requirements for the process of constructing judgments of the type “question everything”, “use logic”, “double-check information” and others. This is partly correct, but without a comprehensive understanding of what “critical thinking” is, a person cannot think critically. In the same way, it cannot use a computer for maximum benefit if it does not understand its purpose and capabilities. Therefore, today we will turn to one of the best books on this topic - "Psychology of Critical Thinking" by Diane Halpern - and based on her analysis we will try to draw up a small program for training the ability to think critically.

You can learn how to see the situation from different perspectives, apply more than 20 thinking techniques in your life, to reason logically and consistently, quickly make effective decisions and find innovative approaches to difficult tasks on our online program “Cognitive science”.
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What is critical thinking?
But first, a little about the author. Diana Halpern - American psychologist, teacher, at one time president of the American Psychological Association. Author and co-author of several successful books, including Psychology of Critical Thinking and Intellect: Knowledge and Unknowing.

In the work of interest to us, D. Halpern turns to the mechanisms of functioning of critical thinking. By it, she understands the type of thinking based on cognitive skills and strategies and allowing to come to results that are distinguished by their balance, logic and purposefulness. What is important - the author assures that critical thinking is not an innate ability, which means that it can be developed. And it’s not just possible, but also necessary, since the ability to think critically allows a person to identify and resist attempts at manipulation, accustoms to clear thoughts, structuredness, correct interpretation of information.
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How to develop the ability to think critically: where to start?
The starting point of training is metacognition. In order not to scare you with complex scientific terminology, we immediately make a reservation that this term refers to the knowledge of a person about his own thought processes or knowledge more globally. How to get them? Through self-knowledge - you need to try to observe yourself from the outside, evaluate and analyze your decisions, identify mental errors. For starters, it’s enough just to “scroll” your day in the imagination before going to bed, trying not only to remember what is happening, but also the nature of your thoughts, the influence of emotions on what has been said and thought, the logic of arguments and reasoning. This is how you can appreciate them (it is not for nothing that the best decisions come after something has happened).

Obviously, this tendency develops in conjunction with memory. D. Halpern writes: “Our memory is not an exact“ copy ”of the events that happened. What we remember is influenced by prior knowledge, what we later learned, the stereotypes and the content of the material. ” Thus, without memory, metacognition resembles a nail without a hammer. Memory gives you the totality of materials necessary to work on yourself, allows you to operate with available information, transferring known data and comparing them with your experience. So you can avoid common mistakes and not fall for the hook of what may seem true because of its universality.

The development of critical thinking
1
Become Sherlock
D. Halpern does not write about Mr. Holmes, but she calls deductive thinking, “the conclusion of valid conclusions based on premises, that is, one of the main requirements and the cornerstone on which critical thinking is based.” judgments that we consider true. " In the book you will not find references to a variety of detective stories, the master of which was A. Conan Doyle. On the contrary, the disclosure of the topic through the prism of the requirements of formal logic returns us to the academic nature of university lectures. But they are masterfully read.

Two requirements that every person striving for the development of critical thinking should make for himself: checking the consequences of the conclusion from the premises and well-reasoned judgments. In the first case, we are talking about the immutability of the premises (the beginning of reflection) throughout the entire process of constructing a judgment. In other words, concepts should not be replaced, changed under the influence of emotions and situations. In order for our thinking to be reasoned, we must adhere to the following rules: 1) premises must be consistent; 2) the premises are sufficiently connected with the conclusion and confirm it; 3) the argument takes into account the missing components of the argument (opposing opinions, counterarguments).
2.
Hesitate
In order to learn how to prove and disprove hypotheses, you do not need to pore over textbooks with logical tasks. Life provides quite enough chances, since even everyday thinking has the same basis as the scientific method of testing hypotheses. Forming an idea of ​​the world, we collect facts and conduct observations, which allows us to obtain relevant knowledge. But, when it comes to such less obvious truths, such as the fact that hot water can be burned, many forget about the critical approach. Hence the blind faith in television news and gossip, the substitution of facts in the process of reasoning, the search for examples for conclusions, and not conclusions based on examples. Each person found himself in such traps. Therefore, cast a healthy doubt on any incoming information, from whatever reliable source you receive it.
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3
Check the facts
In fact, the doubt described above is nothing more than the simplest requirement to verify the facts. In order to do this, you can use the algorithm proposed by D. Halpern:

Avoid selective argumentation. You cannot get true knowledge by selecting only those facts that confirm your guesses. A causal relationship must be fully established.
What do you already know? Is this information sufficient to say with certainty that your hypothesis is true? It is important to be honest with yourself and to operate not only with the available knowledge and facts that confirm them, but also work with the opposite view and the facts confirming it.
Use the entire arsenal of tools available. If necessary, conduct a formal fact check by contacting the source directly, since the data you have can only be someone else's interpretation. Accepting it as true is wrong.
Accuracy is the last criterion to be presented to the findings. Did you manage to reduce the uncertainty? Did you get a quality conclusion or are there still weaknesses? Without an answer to these questions it is impossible to make a valid conclusion.
4.
Make decisions carefully
We have already written several materials on what should be the decision-making process and how to avoid common mistakes. Here are some more tips from D. Halpern:
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Formulate the problem in different ways. This will allow you to look at the problem from different angles, thereby eliminating the influence of the availability heuristic on the nature of your decisions.
Consider even risky and incredible scenarios. People have the property not to see the negative sides, so you need to try to take them into account in order to know what to do when everything goes wrong.
Make a list of possible solutions and gradually select the one that will be most suitable, taking into account the pros and cons.
5
Structure tasks
The process of solving a problem must go through 4 stages: preparation and familiarization, development of a solution, decision making, assessment of its effectiveness. Such a simple sequence will accustom your mind to being structured and allow you to think more efficiently.

6
Develop creativity
The author of Psychology of Critical Thinking considers creativity as a cognitive process that uses information stored in memory and beyond personal experience. It is creativity that will teach you to look at a problem from different angles and generate more, in comparison with a non-creative person, ideas for solving it.