Article Discussion: Critical Thinking as Knowledge of Biases

[livius drusus]

Clutch has written a fascinating article on critical thinking and biases (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/article.php?a=8) which is easily the best overview of the term I've encountered. I've posted a lot on various skeptically-themed discussion boards (mainly JREF (http://forums.randi.org/) and skepticalcommunity.com (http://skepticalcommunity.com/phpbb2/)) and I've seen "critical thinking" bandied about at a dizzying pace, but very little actual examination of what is meant by the term.

Clutch's position - and he is more than welcome to tell me to stfu and quit mischaracterizing him - that an awareness of one's own sensory, social interaction, memory, perception and situational biases is a necessary element for critical thought, strikes me as an excellent starting point.

What do y'all mean when you say critical thinking? What does the McGurk effect sound like to you? Most importantly, did you fall for the audio priming lock, stock and barrel like I did?

[Clutch Munny]

liv, your summary is bang-on, though I'm always a bit squeamish about the word "necessary". Say "very important", and that's just what I think.

As for JREF and the like: I often see critical thinking and scepticism depicted (and exercised) in a way that connotes the rational sanctity of the individual -- as if critical thinking amounted solely to an attitude of caution and rigor toward the information from an unreliable Outside that one accepts Inside. The overarching theme I try to teach, by contrast, is that critical thinking is first and foremost a matter of learning not to trust yourself. All the requisite scepticism about other people and institutions follows naturally from this, but without the false confidence that good reasoning consists in minding the informational gates. What happens within is at least as important.

[viscousmemories]

Really great article, Clutch. A lot of good food for thought there. I only recently learned about the Fundamental Attribution Error by way of the Wikipedia entries. It was interesting to see it in the context of your thesis.

Incidentally:

I heard "lah lah", pretty much as plain as day and even after I knew what I was supposed to be hearing. Am I crazy?

[Clutch Munny]

I heard "lah lah", pretty much as plain as day and even after I knew what I was supposed to be hearing. Am I crazy?

Yes, but for entirely independent reasons. :D

Linguistically you're just in a smallish minority. 'L' is alveolar -- about as close to halfway between velar and bilabial as the interdental 'D'. What makes 'd' more common is that it, 'g' and 'b' are all voiced stops, while 'L' is liquid. When I get my own McGurk sample up, maybe you'll get the "right" effect.

[Clutch Munny]

Update: I've split the article and added a second part, in order to make room for a missing section.

[viscousmemories]

Yes, but for entirely independent reasons. :D

Linguistically you're just in a smallish minority. 'L' is alveolar -- about as close to halfway between velar and bilabial as the interdental 'D'. What makes 'd' more common is that it, 'g' and 'b' are all voiced stops, while 'L' is liquid. When I get my own McGurk sample up, maybe you'll get the "right" effect.
/me grins.

Cool.

[Clutch Munny]

Yes, but for entirely independent reasons. :D

Linguistically you're just in a smallish minority. 'L' is alveolar -- about as close to halfway between velar and bilabial as the interdental 'D'. What makes 'd' more common is that it, 'g' and 'b' are all voiced stops, while 'L' is liquid. When I get my own McGurk sample up, maybe you'll get the "right" effect.


vm, I've put my own example in there now. (Note the production values.) I'll be interested to see if you and anyone else who'd been getting something other than the majority response from the first sample will get anything different from the new one.

Article (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/article.php?a=8)

(Right now the audio file that comes later in the article doesn't seem to be there, but I reckon that'll get solved.)

[viscousmemories]

vm, I've put my own example in there now. (Note the production values.) I'll be interested to see if you and anyone else who'd been getting something other than the majority response from the first sample will get anything different from the new one.
That's fascinating, Clutch. "Da, da", but closer to "thah, thah" is exactly what I heard even before re-reading the bit of the article that tells me what I'm supposed to hear. :)

[livius drusus]

(Right now the audio file that comes later in the article doesn't seem to be there, but I reckon that'll get solved.)

You reckoned correctly. Of course.

[viscousmemories]

You reckoned correctly. Of course.
Yes, I apologize for that Clutch. I deliberately deleted that file from the server last week because I couldn't remember what it was. From now on, no more delete first, ask questions later policy. :)

[trendkill]

Well, I thought critical thinking was just not uncritically accepting things as they are presented. Looks like I was sort of right. After reading that, though, it seems I can't help but do so. But like G.I. Joe said, knowing is half the battle.

That "McGurk effect" movie blew my mind. It's almost unbelievable that my brain averages between what it expects because of visual cues and what it actually hears to create the sound I perceive--and even knowing exactly what's happening doesn't really mitigate the effect at all. Looking away invariably produced "bah", looking back at the video produced "thah" almost every time. I also reacted just as predicted to the audio priming.

[Clutch Munny]

Well, I thought critical thinking was just not uncritically accepting things as they are presented. Looks like I was sort of right. After reading that, though, it seems I can't help but do so. But like G.I. Joe said, knowing is half the battle.

That "McGurk effect" movie blew my mind. It's almost unbelievable that my brain averages between what it expects because of visual cues and what it actually hears to create the sound I perceive--and even knowing exactly what's happening doesn't really mitigate the effect at all. Looking away invariably produced "bah", looking back at the video produced "thah" almost every time. I also reacted just as predicted to the audio priming.

Hee-hee. Very satisfying feedback, that.

Like I said, Jedi mind tricks... and we perform them on ourselves. Bottom line: "Well, I was there, and I saw/heard it myself!" is very far from decisive evidence, even when sincere.