Intuition
The heart has its reasons which reason does not know.
Pascal, 1670.
He that trusteth his own heart is a fool.
Proverbs 28:36
How much do we know at any time? Much more, or so
I believe, than we know we know!
Agatha Christie, The Moving Finger
Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving onself.
Ludvig Wittgenstein
Intuition: does it exist?
General consensus that it exists
but we have been wrong before. . . . .
earth is flat . . .
sun travels around earth. . . .
Intuition: what is it?
things tell you things
•Implicit and unconscious, but depends on the 5 senses
•Emotional (gut feeling) but has strong cognitive component
•Error prone but do we ever say, “I just had a feeling in my gut…
that I was wrong about this?”
•Slow to learn and hard to unlearn
•Some people are just good at it, but develops with experience
•Accessible to verbal articulation but self-report is fallacious
•Leads to action except sometimes intuition is to not act
•Occurs in split-second situations and develops slowly across time
things tell you things
Intuition: what else is it?
•Increased alertness or vigilance
•Higher level of motivation
•Better social skills
•More common sense
•Greater awareness of the situation
•Being more assertive
•Having greater empathy
•Being more focused
•More dedicated and enthusiastic for role of cop
•Having integrity; character
Complex pattern recognition
Complex emergent process
Intuition: where/when does it occur?
•When are calm (and can observe more)
•When in survival situation and need immediate decision
•In crime scene investigation (that can go on for days or months)
•When remain open to alternative hypotheses
•In law enforcement, medicine, airport & border security:
car salesmen?
out hunting and feel (animal’s) eyes on you?
Intuition: is it learned or innate?
•20% have it
•National Academy classes: 90% report experiencing
“intuitive event”
•People get better with experience and mentoring
•Some people remain clueless even after years on the job
Has implications for training and assessment
Intuition: is it learned or innate?
Has implications for training and assessment
learning
genetics
Area of the individual needs H X W to exist
Intuition: what is it?
Immediate insight without observation or reason
Perception-like, rapid, effortless cognition leading to action
Social intuition: sensing that something is not right
Unconscious learning
Complex pattern recognition
Myers, D. G. (2002). Intuition: Its Powers and Perils. New
Haven: Yale University Press.
Intuition: does it exist?
Science: if we can measure it
Describe operations of measurement
Agree that may not have consensus
other abstractions are measured:
time
general relativity theory
special relativity theory
intelligence
Precedence exists
“However, the conviction remains that whenever
we do use vision to become aware of objects or
events, this must be accompanied by a
corresponding visual experience. . . .The
experiments reported here show that this belief is
incorrect. In particular, some observers can
consciously feel (or sense) a change in their
surroundings even though they no visual
experience of it. . . . “
“Forty naïve observers were tested. Observers
viewed the display and were asked to press a
response key twice. The first response was to be
given when they sense a change – that is, had a
“feeling” that a change was occurring. The
second response key was to be given when they
saw the change – that is, had a visual experience
sufficient for a verbal description of the
changing item. . . .”
Rensink, R. A. (2004). Visual Sensing Without Seeing.
Psychological Science, 15, 27-32.
Intuition: in controlled settings?
Priming studies:
Present a word on a screen (e.g., “bread”) too briefly for
people to be able to verbally report the word –
Then flash either “bubble” or “butter” briefly but slow
enough that people can see it:
Will see butter more easily (faster) than bubble
Primed the word butter with a cue that person could
not report seeing.
Intuition: how can we research it?
Descriptive studies:
Who: experienced vs rookie
men and women equally?
bad guys and good guys
When: repeated or seldom
“instantaneous” vs. slow realization
ET
Where:alone or with partner
situations of high/low risk
situations of high/low emotions
at work or “all the time”
with constant or with changing environments
Intuition: how can we research it?
Retrospective studies:
Self-report . . . . .
memory
reporting requirements
feedback
Talking through; think aloud
Intuition: how can we research it?
Correlational studies:
•Implicit and unconscious, but depends on the 5 senses
•Emotional (gut feeling) but has strong cognitive component
•Error prone but do we ever say, “I just had a feeling in my
gut…that I was wrong about this?”
•Slow to learn and hard to unlearn
•Some people are just good at it, but develops with experience
•Accessible to verbal articulation but self-report is fallacious
•Leads to action except sometimes intuition is to not act
•Occurs in split-second situations and develops slowly across
time
Look for presence or absence of one to occur with
presence or absence of the other: e.g., does intuition
occur more often under stress or calm?
Intuition: how can we research it?
Experimental studies:
Manipulate antecedents and measure behavior
E.g., person observes complex scene (with low or high
density of cues) and track eye movement as a function of
the cues moving around in that environment.
Vary the characteristics of the person – test the expert as
well as the novice.
“Signal”
Present
Absent
Have intuition
and act on it.
Have no intuition
and still act.
Have intuition
and do not act.
Have no intuition
and do not act.
Future Directions
Research Recommendations
Research Priorities