INTUITIVE THINKING: CHARACTERISTICS, DEVELOPMENT AND EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The intuitive thinking is a kind of knowledge that we acquire without having to make any kind of reasoning. It is considered to be produced by the action of the subconscious, the part of our mind that we cannot access at will but that processes an enormous amount of information.

In general, we cannot choose when to use intuitive thinking. On the other hand, in certain situations we feel an intuition: a feeling that tells us the course of action that we think we should follow or the answer to a question. We often refer to these sensations as "hunches" or "hunches."

The study of intuition has been one of the fundamental topics for disciplines such as the psychology of thought. In this article you will find the answer to some of the biggest questions about this ability.

characteristics

It is a very complex process

Although it seems totally natural to us to make use of our intuitions, the latest research on the subject has found that it is something tremendously difficult. In fact, it is something that no type of artificial intelligence has managed to reproduce until now.

To have any kind of intuitive thinking, our brain must be able to process billions of data per second. However, because the one in charge of doing it is our unconscious mind, we do not realize the effort that this entails.

On the contrary, only processed data reaches our consciousness, so our feeling is that intuitions only "emerge." This is in contrast to our experience of consciously trying to perform complex tasks, such as solving math problems.

However, the amount of processing required to do this type of operation is fully achievable by even the oldest of computers, while no machine has yet been able to emulate human intuitions. This gives us an idea of ​​the amount of data that our unconscious actually processes.

Improves with practice

One of the most interesting investigations related to intuitive thinking is the one that examined the differences in it depending on the practice of people in a certain discipline. The results showed that, far from being innate, intuitions increased with mastery.

For example, a novice tennis player would have little intuition about the path of the ball or the way it has to hit.

On the contrary, someone who has been playing for many years would have accumulated enough data to generate all kinds of intuitive thoughts about these aspects.

It belongs to the limbic brain

Brain structures have traditionally been divided into three groups: those that deal with instincts and the most basic survival, those that have to do with emotions, and those related to logic and conscious thinking.

Intuition would be located in certain structures belonging to the limbic system, which is in charge of emotions. Because the older parts of the brain tend to control the newer ones, intuitive thinking tends to dominate our logical analysis.

That is why it is common to see a person discard something that seems evident in a rational analysis to follow what a hunch tells him. In this case, your limbic system would be sending you a signal that your logical brain cannot overcome.

How does it develop?

Research on intuition has shown that, in most cases, we are not born with this ability. On the contrary, developing intuitive thinking is a process that requires the collection of a lot of data, and that improves the more you master a certain area.

So why is it so natural for us to have intuitions at certain times? The answer would be that we have accumulated a huge amount of information on certain topics throughout our lives, so now our brain can form these types of thoughts without us having to make any effort.

An example would be the ability to recognize a person's emotional state. Although it is easy for us to tell if someone is sad or happy just by looking at them, researchers in the field of artificial intelligence have discovered that doing so is really complex.

However, because since we are born we are observing other people and analyzing how they feel, by the time we reach our adult life we ​​are already experts reading emotional states. This internalization process follows four phases, regardless of the area we are talking about:

Unconscious incompetence

Before we begin to learn something, we are so ignorant about the subject that we are not even aware of what we do not know.

At this point we are unable to have any kind of intuition in this particular aspect of our life, and the ones we do have will be wrong.

Conscious incompetence

When we begin to make a conscious effort to learn about something, we first become aware of all the things that we do not yet know.

Here we are not capable of having correct intuitions either, but at least we realize that the ones we had before are wrong.

Conscious competition

When we have practiced enough, we are able to analyze situations correctly and know what we have to do at all times.

However, in this third phase we have not yet internalized the knowledge, so these analyzes always require an effort. Intuitive thinking has not yet developed.

Unconscious competence

Finally, with enough time and proper practice, our brain has been able to internalize everything we have learned on the subject.

This is where the true insights would emerge. In reality these would not be more than all the knowledge that we have accumulated, filtered by our unconscious mind.

Examples

Here are some examples of intuition and intuitive thinking.

- In general, we are able to know when someone is lying to us. This happens because our brain can analyze millions of data of the other's facial expression, known as "micro-gestures."

- Many times we feel if a course of action is adequate or not. The emotion that warns us of this comes from similar experiences that we have already lived previously.

- When we master a discipline, such as music or sport, we are able to intuitively perform great feats. This happens because we have hundreds of hours of practice behind us, which our brain processes to give us an answer.

References

1. "Intuitive thinking in the human being" in: Psychologically Speaking. Retrieved: June 04, 2018 from Psychologically Speaking: psicologicamentehablando.com.
2. "What is intuitive knowledge? Characteristics and Examples ”in: Self-Help Resources. Retrieved on: June 04, 2018 from Self-help Resources: Recursosdeautoayuda.com.
3. "The 4 types of intuitive thinking" in: The Mind is Wonderful. Retrieved on: June 04, 2018 from The Mind is Wonderful: lamenteesmaravillosa.com.
4. "10 characteristics of intuition" in: Characteristics. Retrieved on: June 04, 2018 from Features: caracteristicas.co.
5. "Intuitive thinking" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: June 04, 2018 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org.