Boss5 ppt ch04_ada
- 1. Chapter 4 Knowledge, Evidence, & Errors in Thinking The aim of this tutorial is to help you to understand the relationships among language, communication, and critical thinking. Copyright © 2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
- 2. © McGraw Hill 2 Good Critical Thinking Skills Require a Sound Knowledge Base • Knowledge is information or experience we believe to be true and for which we have justification or evidence. • Understanding how knowledge is acquired, as well as having an awareness of the limits of human understanding, is essential in logical reasoning.
- 3. © McGraw Hill 3 Rationalism and Empiricism • Our views of the world are shaped by our understanding of truth and the ultimate sources of knowledge. • Rationalists, like the Greek philosopher Plato, claim that most human knowledge and truth are derived from reason. • Empiricists, on the other hand, claim that truth and knowledge are derived through empirical evidence collected by our physical senses.
- 4. © McGraw Hill 4 Immanuel Kant (1724 to 1804) • Kant, a German philosopher, rejected both rationalism and empiricism. • He argued that our experience of reality is not a matter of reasoning or empirical evidence but is dependent on the structure of our minds. • This means we do not see reality “as it is” but rather as our brain interprets it by structuring and processing incoming information.
- 5. © McGraw Hill 5 Evaluating Evidence • Evidence is something that tends to prove or disprove a particular view. • It can come from a variety of sources, and as good critical thinkers we must evaluate all evidence before we employ it in critical analysis. • Learning how to evaluate the credibility and accuracy of evidence is a key skill in critical thinking and logic.
- 6. © McGraw Hill 6 The Fallibility of Direct Experience As noted previously, our brains organize and interpret, rather than directly record, sensory experience. • As a result, direct sense experience, while widely relied upon, is not infallible. • Memories are subject to influence from a range of factors, including time, language, and external suggestions. • Moreover, our brains often create false memories of events, and these false memories can be as compelling and believable as real memories. • This phenomenon is known as false memory syndrome.
- 7. © McGraw Hill 7 Space Shuttle Challenger Taking Off Source: Space Shuttle Highlights Gallery/NASA. Many of the witnesses of the 1986 Challenger explosion dramatically altered their memories of the disaster, even "seeing" things that never happened.
- 8. © McGraw Hill 8 Hearsay and Anecdotal Evidence Two types of evidence are notoriously unreliable and require us to approach their claims with skepticism. • Hearsay is evidence that is heard by one person and then repeated to one or more other persons. • Anecdotal evidence, evidence based on personal testimony, is also unreliable due to problems of inaccurate memory as well as the human tendency toward exaggeration and distortion.
- 9. © McGraw Hill 9 Hearsay and the Game of Telephone George Doyle/Stockbyte/Getty Images
- 10. © McGraw Hill 10 Experts and Credibility Although experts are generally among the most credible information sources, it is always important to examine their credentials before accepting their arguments. Four factors used to determine expertise. • Education or training from a reputable source. • Experience in making judgments in the field. • Reputation among peers in the field. • Accomplishments in the field, such as publications and/or awards.
- 11. © McGraw Hill 11 Inadequate Research Can Lead to Misrepresentation of a Product Business Wire/Getty Images
- 12. © McGraw Hill 12 Evaluating Claims • Our analysis of the evidence for a claim should be accurate, unbiased, and as complete as possible. • One thing we must watch out for when evaluating claims is confirmation bias, the tendency to look only for evidence that confirms our assumptions and to resist evidence that contradicts them. • As critical thinkers, we need to consciously develop strategies that compel us to examine evidence, especially that which confirms our prior views, more skeptically, and to be more open-minded about evidence that contradicts our views.
- 13. 13 © McGraw Hill Hot or Not? Do you tend to distort evidence to fit with your beliefs?
- 14. © McGraw Hill 14 Research Is the Key to Knowledge Good critical thinkers spend time researching claims and collecting information before drawing conclusions. Recommended research resources. • Expert interviews. • Dictionaries and encyclopedias. • Library catalogues and scholarly journals. • Government documents and Internet sites. When doing research, take accurate notes, cite your sources, and use quotations to acknowledge sources.
- 15. © McGraw Hill 15 Rachel Carson Hank Walker/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
- 16. © McGraw Hill 16 Cognitive and Perceptual Errors in Thinking1 • Most people underestimate the critical role that cognitive and social factors play in our interpretation of sensory data. • Although emotion has traditionally been blamed for faulty reasoning, studies suggest many of our errors in thinking are neurological in nature. • Most of these errors are either cognitive or perceptual errors.
- 17. © McGraw Hill 17 Cognitive and Perceptual Errors in Thinking2 These processes result in a number of perceptual error predispositions, including misperception of random data, memorable events error, probability errors, self-serving biases, and self-fulfilling prophecies.
- 18. © McGraw Hill 18 Perceptual Errors Our minds are not like recording devices. Instead, our brains construct a picture of reality like an artist does, filtering our perceptions and filling in missing information based in part on our expectations.
- 19. © McGraw Hill 19 The War of the Worlds Paramount Pictures/Moviepix/Getty Images
- 20. © McGraw Hill 20 The Saint Louis Arch Charles Knowles/Alamy Stock Photo
- 21. © McGraw Hill 21 Inkblots SSPL/Getty Images
- 22. © McGraw Hill 22 Hurricane Katrina Lavizzara/Shutterstock Radar photo of 2005 Hurricane Katrina, which some saw as similar to the image of a fetus in the womb and concluded the storm was punishment for the presence of abortion clinics.
- 23. © McGraw Hill 23 A Car Accident Great Art Productions/Photolibrary/Getty Images Statistically, there is a greater chance of being killed in a car accident than in an airplane crash.
- 24. © McGraw Hill 24 Gambler's Error Hitoshi Nishimura/Taxi Japan/Getty Images Gambler's error is based on a misunderstanding of the random nature of probability.
- 25. © McGraw Hill 25 Rumors of Impending Bank Failures during the Great Depression Led to Mass Panic Hulton Archive/Getty Images
- 26. © McGraw Hill 26 Social Errors and Biases • As highly social animals, social norms and cultural expectations exert a strong influence on how we perceive the world. These norms and expectations often act as barriers to critical thinking. • Some examples of social errors include the “one of us/one of them” error, social expectations, stereotyping, group pressure and conformity, and group diffusion of responsibility.
- 27. © McGraw Hill 27 Rioting in Ferguson, Missouri Rena Schild/Shutterstock Much of the violence between conflicting cultural groups is born of the "one of us/one of them" error.
- 28. © McGraw Hill 28 Red States versus Blue States Access the text alternative for slide images
- 29. © McGraw Hill 29 The Salem Witch Hunts North Wind Picture Archives /The Image Works
- 30. © McGraw Hill 30 Asch Experiment
- 31. © McGraw Hill 31 Diffusion of Responsibility Viviane Moos/Corbis Historical/Getty Images The phenomenon of diffusion of responsibility is illustrated when pedestrians ignore or avoid homeless people, assuming that someone else will take care of them.
- 32. © McGraw Hill 32 Conclusions • Although knowledge is a crucial component of effective critical thinking, we must recognize that the sources of knowledge, reason, and experience are subject to distortion. • As critical thinkers, we must be aware of these limitations and conduct research thoroughly, with minds open to both supportive and contradictory evidence as we collect and analyze information.
- 33. © McGraw Hill 33 Unidentified Flying Objects (U F Os) James Porto/The Image Bank/Getty Images