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Human Thinking: The Basics

THINKING: WHAT IS IT AND WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?WHAT IS ‘THINKING’?Introduction Conscious vs unconscious thinking Thinking has its limits Undirected thinking Inattentional blindness Thinking as information processing - some historical background Metaphors of thought Mental models of the world Relative vs absolute thinking The role of the environment Fast vs slow thinking Summary Suggested Further Reading EVOLUTION OF THINKING Introduction The evolving brain The costs of thinking Biologically primary vs biologically secondary thinking Folk physics Folk biology Folk psychology Male vs female folk psychology Biologically secondary thinking Optimal vs suboptimal evolutionary pressures The Swiss Army Knife vs the hand The development of thinking in childhood Summary Suggested Further Reading THINKING AS REASONING PROBLEM-SOLVING Introduction Bounded rationality Well-defined and ill-defined problems Means-ends analysis The development of expertise Creative problem-solving Summary Suggested Further Reading RATIONAL THINKING Introduction 'Logical' thinking Types of logical reasoning Why Sherlock Holmes' reasoning is illogical The new paradigm 'Rational' decisions and when to avoid them Summary Suggested Further Reading WHEN THINKING GOES AWRY BIASES, ERRORS, AND HEURISTICS Confirmation bias Early studies of confirmation bias Guessing when to stop digging Dealing with uncertainty Tversky and Kahneman – Biases and heuristics Representativeness Availability Anchoring and adjustment Gigerenzer, Todd and the ABC Research Group - Fast and frugal heuristics Summary Suggested Further Reading SOCIETY MADE ME DO IT Introduction Where do the biases come from?Overcoming biases Do machines think differently?Summary Suggested Further Reading THE CONFABULATING MIND Introduction How to make people an offer they can't refuse Mistaking implications for assertions The rhyme as reason effect (aka the Keats effect)Choosing competent politicians the easy way How do we justify our choices?So, who do you think you are?Causal attributions Summary Suggested Further Reading MOTIVATED COGNITION MISTAKEN BELIEFS ABOUT THE WORLD Naïve physics 'When prophecy fails'Confirmation bias revisited: The neuropsychology of confirmation bias The irrational persistence of belief Summary Suggested Further Reading THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING LIKE THE TRUTH Introduction Belief and disorders of belief Motivated ignorance, and real ignorance Conspiratorial thinking Who is susceptible to fake news?Summary Suggested Further Reading MAGICAL THINKING What is magical thinking?Magical contagion and seeing patterns that aren't there Magical thinking and cognitive style Origins of magical thinking Magical thinking as desire fulfilment Paraskevitriskaidekaphobia The 'Just World' hypothesis Things happen for a reason 'Life' after death Religious thinking The costs of magical thinking Summary Suggested Further Reading AFTERWORD

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THINKING: WHAT IS IT AND WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?