Intuitive

Thinking TNCT
of images. Your task is to
construct a story given that
Activity: Tell Me situation. Share what was
the first thing that came to
A Story your mind in the following
In the following slides, you images.
will be presented a series
How do we
experience
intuitive
thinking
Appears quickly in
consciousness
We are not fully aware of
 underlying reasons
Strong enough to act upon

Why do we
dismiss
intuitions?
 Violates the laws of logic

Problems with Source of many human disasters

intuition Education system seems to distrust intuitive

thinking
“It is an illusion to expect anything from intuition”

Ignores information

Puzzle Time
Judith has two children. Given
that she has at least one boy
how big is the chance that
she has two boys.
Puzzle Time
If it takes 5 machines 5
minutes to make 5 widgets,
how long would it take 100
machines to make 100
widgets?
Puzzle Time
 How many pairs of
animals did Moses fit
in the Ark?
Puzzle Time
In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads.
 Every day, the patch doubles in size.
If it takes 48 days for the patch to
cover the entire lake, how long would
it take for the patch to cover half of
the lake?
Puzzle Time
If you’re running a race and
 you pass the person in the
second place, what place are
you in?
Puzzle Time
You have 100 pounds of potatoes
which are 99% water by weight.
You let them dehydrate until they
are 98% water. Now how much
do they weigh?
 So, is intuition
useless?
How to use intuition or
heuristic thinking
Simple rule of thumbs which takes advantage of
evolved capacities of the brain
Rule of thumb = heuristic
 Heuristic = different from a balance sheet that
evaluates pros and cons
Heuristic = tries to hit the most important
information and ignores the rest

We developed multiple heuristic capabilities due

to brain evolution

Different types of
heuristic thinking
or intuitions
Satisficing heuristic
Satisfying +
sufficing
Works when the
alternative is
good enough to
solve the
problem
 encountered
Risk-Aversion
and Loss
Aversion
heuristic
Risk-aversion – the
certain is much more
preferable or valuable
than the uncertain
Loss-aversion –
Avoiding losses are
much more preferable
than making gains
Availability
Heuristic
This form of thinking
happens when we
judge that an event
 will most likely
happen because of
examples or similar
events that
immediately come to
mind.

Affect
heuristic
When we make
decisions based on
emotions alone
Association
Heuristic
This heuristic is at work
when we make judgments
 or decisions, or assess the
probability of the
occurrence of expected
outcomes on the basis of
what a word or an idea
reminds us, or of what we
associate with the word or
idea
This is at work when we make
decisions or judgments, or assess
the probability of the occurrence of
expected outcomes, on the basis of
using a number or a value as a
starting point, serving as our
“anchor”, which we later on adjust to
a level that we find acceptable.

Anchoring-and-Adjustment
Heuristic
Intuitive thinking
A bigger problem with the
failure to look at the limits
of one’s intuitive thinking is
the lack to account for our
personal biases.
These may lead into
misinterpretations and
distortion of facts during
the decision making
processes.