CRITICAL THINKING FUNDAMENTALS
This is the process of thinking carefully about a subject or idea without allowing feelings or opinions to affect your judgment.
What is critical thinking?
This standard asks whether information is easy to understand and free from confusion.
What is Clarity?
This element identifies the goal or objective behind your thinking.
What is Purpose?
This occurs when people seek information that supports what they already believe while ignoring contradictory evidence.
What is Confirmation Bias?
An officer intentionally asks junior personnel for opposing viewpoints before making a decision.
Which intellectual standard is the officer strengthening?
What is Breadth?
Critical thinkers first do this when faced with a problem before jumping to conclusions.
What is ask clear questions and define the problem?
This standard asks whether information is true and free from errors.
What is Accuracy?
This element identifies the information, evidence, or data being used.
What is Information?
Disinformation is best described as this.
What is deliberately false or misleading information intended to influence thinking?
A supervisor refuses to change a procedure because "that's how we've always done it."
Which thinking error is most evident?
What is uncritical thinking or resistance to evaluating assumptions?
This consists of one or more premises offered to support a conclusion.
What is an argument?
This standard asks whether information relates directly to the issue being discussed.
What is Relevance?
This element requires considering different perspectives before making a decision.
What is Point of View?
Cognitive domain operations primarily seek to influence this.
What are people's perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and decision-making?
An investigation reveals a problem, but leadership focuses only on one piece of evidence that supports its original opinion while ignoring conflicting evidence.
What bias is occurring?
What is Confirmation Bias?
Unlike an argument, this simply states a claim without supporting reasons.
What is a statement?
Name four additional intellectual standards besides clarity, accuracy, and relevance.
What are any four of:
This element identifies beliefs accepted without proof.
What are Assumptions?
True or False:
The best defense against disinformation is accepting information that agrees with your personal opinions.
What is False?
A planning team proposes a solution that appears logical until someone points out it violates Air Force policy.
Which intellectual standard should have been evaluated more carefully?
What is Logic?
A commander hears a rumor about declining morale and immediately disciplines several supervisors without collecting evidence.
Which critical thinking principle was ignored?
What is gathering and assessing relevant information before reaching conclusions?
A briefing provides accurate statistics but leaves out important contextual information needed to understand why the numbers changed.
Which intellectual standard is most lacking?
What is Depth?
A flight commander only considers the opinions of senior NCOs while ignoring junior Airmen who perform the work every day.
Which element of reasoning is weakest?
What is Point of View?
A social media post claims a new enemy weapon has destroyed multiple bases. No credible sources confirm the claim, but many Airmen begin sharing it anyway.
What critical thinking skill should be applied first?
What is evaluating the credibility and accuracy of the information before accepting or sharing it?
During a crisis, multiple reports conflict with one another. Rather than accepting the first report received, the commander compares sources, identifies assumptions, considers several viewpoints, evaluates evidence, and adjusts the plan as new information becomes available.
What skill is the commander demonstrating?
What is Critical Thinking?