Towards a cognitive model of critical thinking

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Towards a cognitive model of critical thinking

• Ian Wells, Andy Burton and Esme Burton
• University of East London, School of Psychology

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OR.....
Some critical thinking about critical thinking
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The Starting Point
In addition to subject skills and knowledge,
graduates also develop skills in communication,
numeracy, teamwork, critical thinking, computing,
independent learning and many others, all of
which are highly valued by employers. QAA
Psychology benchmark (2002)
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Graduateness

• 'to see things as they are, to go right to the
  point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to
  detect what is sophistical, and to discard what
  is irrelevant . . . to fill any post with credit
  and to master any subject with facility.'
• John Henry Newman (1852)

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The problem with critical thinking.....

• Were not clear what it is
• Were not sure how to measure it
• We have lots of ideas about how to improve it
• We lack a theory of how it works

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Constructing a theory
Seeking parallels between the critical thinking
literature and psychologys own literature
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Thought Knowledge An introduction to Critical
Thinking Diane F. Halpern
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Dual-process models
Problem
System 1
TIME
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Characteristics of the systems
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The homonculus problem
System 2
Critical Thinking
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Working Memory Capacity and Cognition
Latency and frequency of generating exemplars
from a category Rosen Engle
(1997) Speed and probability of successfully
retrieving goal-relevant Daily, Lovett,
Reder (2001) Fan interference
Conway Engle (1994) Negative
priming Conway, Tuholski, Shisler, Engle
(1999) Proactive interference
Kane Engle (2000) Rosen Engle
(1998) Retroactive interference
Tuholski, Engle, Baylis
(2001) Suppression effects
Rosen Engle
(1997) Suppressing repetitive exemplars in
category fluency task Conway, Cowan,
Bunting (2001) Resisting the lure of a powerful
orienting cue Kane, Bleckley, Conway,
Engle (2001) Resisting peripheral visual cue
(e.g., antisaccade task) Brewin
Beaton (2002) Inhibiting habitual responses
(e.g., Stroop task) Goldinger, Kleider,
Azuma, Beike (2003) Age-related declines in
ability to suppress
Rosen Engle (1997) Suppression of
counterfactual thoughts MacDonald,
Just, Carpenter (1992) Age-related declines in
ability to inhibit stereotype use
Whitney, Ritchie, Clark (1991) Reading
comprehension
Kyllonen Christal (1990) Language
comprehension
Schunn Reder (2001) Adapting strategies to
changing success rates
Ormrod Cochran (1998) Vocabulary leaming
Kyllonen
Stephens (1990) Ability solve problems and adapt
to situations
Conway etal (2002)
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The role of disposition ?
Processing Efficiency Theory Eysenck Calvo, 1992
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Practical examples ...
Maths Anxiety Miller Bichsel, 2003 Stereotype
Threat Schmader Johns, 2003
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Assessing disposition...
Need for Cognition Cacioppo Petty, 1982 The
tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful
cognitive activity I feel relief rather than
satisfaction after completing a task that
required a lot of mental effort Thinking is
not my idea of fun
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A possible model
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Implications for education

• Encourage metacognition
• Teach cognitive biases
• Assess for thinking from level 1