This chapter introduces the role of “automatic thinking,” in hypothesis formation. Automatic thinking refers to the default operations of our mind that affect how we view and understand the world. These operations are behind cognitive biases and heuristic reasoning, inductive reasoning, and, most importantly, our tendency to engage in continual, conscious and unconscious, hypothesis generation. Unconscious hypotheses allow us to predict what will happen next and see why things “make sense.” They also account for our susceptibility to the “cognitive illusions,” that lead us astray. The chapter also questions whether “inductive reasoning” should count as a form of “reasoning” at all, since the ability to recognize and respond to regularities in the environment appears to be an adaptive trait shared by all animals and, perhaps, plants as well. This chapter argues that much of the criticism of the hypothesis has failed to take these automatic mental processes into account. The chapter suggests that a better sense of our automatic mental activity can lead to improvements in scientific thinking.
Postgraduate science research skills: the role of creativity, tacit knowledge, thought styles and language
