CHAPTER 3

THINKING THEORY
• According to Marvin S. Cohen, 2000,
critical thinking is like an onion.

• It has a multi-layered structure.

• Each of the three layers is associated with

distinctive criteria of performance, which
progress from internal to external in their
focus
• At its innermost core critical thinking involves
selective consideration of alternative possible
states of affairs.

• Metrics of performance at this level involve

logical, probabilistic, and explanatory coherence
of mental models.
• At the intermediate level, these models are
embedded within a layer of critical questioning which
motivates the generation and evaluation of
possibilities.

• Such dialogues may take place within a single

individual, or they may be conducted among different
individuals.

• Critical questioning is evaluated by reference to norms

for conducting the appropriate kinds of critical
dialogue. Dialogue types are differentiated by the
depth of probing to which a proponent must respond
and the scope of the permitted responses.
• At the outermost layer, critical thinking is a
judgment about the reliability of a cognitive
faculty, hence, the degree of trust that should be
placed in its outputs.

• The critical dialogue is only one of various

available cognitive or social processes that might
be utilized to generate beliefs and decisions.

• Different processes, such as pattern recognition,

may be more reliable under some conditions.
 The theory of critical thinking draws on and
synthesizes on three separate topics

o Cognitive theories of reasoning according to which alternative possible situations are

represented by mental models.
o Normative models of critical discussion in which a proponent must defend a claim against
an opponent or critic.
o Models of cognitive mechanisms and of the environment which enable us to assess the
reliability of the processes by means of which we form beliefs and make choices.
MENTAL
MODEL
 What is Mental Model?
o Someone’s thought process about how something works in the real world.
o Representation of the surrounding world, the relationship between its various parts and
a person’s intuitive perception about how his own acts and its consequences.

o Example: The image of the world around us, which we carry in our head is just a model.
Nobody in his head imagines all the world, government or country (do you?). He has
only selected concept and relationship between them, and uses those to represent the
real world.
 • Mental model is a process by which a human
“examines the state of things asserted in the
premises, forms a perception of that state of
things, perceives in the parts of the diagram
relations not explicitly mentioned in the premises,
satisfies itself by mental experiments upon the
diagram that these relations would always subsist,
or at least would do so in a certain proportion of
cases, and concludes their necessary, or
probable, truth.”

• In short, mental models are psychological

representations of real, hypothetical, or
Charles Sanders Peirce,
The American Philosopher imaginary situations.
The theory of mental models rests on simple principles, and it extends in a natural way to inferring
probabilities, to decision making, and to recursive reasoning about other people’s reasoning. The
principal assumptions of the theory are:

o Each model represents a possibility. Its structure corresponds to the structure of the
world, but it has symbols for negation, probability, believability, and so on. Models
that are kinematic or dynamic unfold in time to represent sequences of events.
o Models are iconic as possible, that is, their parts and relations correspond to those
of the situations that they represent. They underlie visual images, but they also
represent abstractions, and so they can represent the extensions of all sorts of
relations. They can also be supplemented by symbolic elements to represent, for
example, negation.
Johnson-Laird o Models explain deduction, induction, and explanation. In a valid deduction, the
conclusion holds for all models of the premises. In an induction, knowledge
eliminates models of possibilities, and so the conclusion goes beyond the
information given. In an abduction, knowledge introduces new concepts in order
to yield an explanation.
NORMATIVE
DECISION
THEORY
 Reflect on these questions and ask yourself on how is a decision made?

o Shall I bring the umbrella today? The decision depends on something which I do not know, namely
whether it will rain or not.
o I am looking for a house to buy. Shall I buy this one? This house looks fine, but perhaps I will find a still
better house for the same price if I go on searching. When shall I stop the search procedure?
o Am I going to smoke the next cigarette? One single cigarette is no problem, but if I make the same
decision sufficiently many times it may kill me.
o The court has to decide whether the defendant is guilty or not. There are two mistakes that the court
can make, namely to convict an innocent person and to acquit a guilty person. What principles
should the court apply if it considers the first of this mistakes to be more serious than the second?
o A committee has to make a decision, but its members have different opinions. What rules should they
use to ensure that they can reach a conclusion even if they are in disagreement?
 What is normative decision theory?

• Normative decision theory is a theory about how decisions should be made.

• The "should" in the foregoing sentence can be interpreted in many ways. There is, however, virtually
complete agreement among decision scientists that it refers to the prerequisites of rational decision-
making. In other words, a normative decision theory is a theory about how decisions should be made
in order to be rational.

• Normative or prescriptive decision theory is concerned with identifying the best decision to take (in
practice, there are situations in which "best" is not necessarily the maximal, optimum may also include
values in addition to maximum, but within a specific or approximate range), assuming an ideal
decision maker who is fully informed, able to compute with perfect accuracy, and fully rational.

• The practical application of this prescriptive approach (how people ought to make decisions) is called
decision analysis and aimed at finding tools and methodologies to help people make better decisions.
 Cognitive
mechanism
 What is cognitive mechanism?

• A cognitive –developmental mechanism is any mental process that improves children’s ability to
process information.

• Cognitive mechanism are mental processes that include perceptual and linguistic processes, as well
as conceptual, reasoning and problem-solving ones.

• The improvements in children’s ability to process information that are of interest include large and
small, long-term and short-term, qualitative and quantitative. Neural, associative and higher-level
change mechanism are all included, because all interact to produce cognitive development.

This mechanism contributes to cognitive development:

o Neural Mechanism
✓ Synaptogenesis
 Neural mechanism
• As stated by Crnic & Pennington, 1987, recent advances in neuroscience have provided much stronger evidence
than previously existed for contributions for specific aspects of brain maturation to specific cognitive acquisitions.

Synaptogenesis

• The number of synapses within numerous parts of the brain follows a distinctive developmental course. Such
connections are produced in especially great numbers during the late prenatal and early postnatal periods.

• Huttenlocher (1979) found that the average number of synaptic connections in the third layer of the middle frontal
gyrus grew from 10,000 to 100,000 between birth and 12 months of age. The density of synapses increased until age
2, after which it gradually decreased to adult levels. These adults' level were reached by about age 7.

• From age 6 months to age 7 years, synaptic density in the children’s brain exceeded adult levels. Recent studies
have linked cognitive and synaptic change.