Sensing signal
Our bodies are signal detectors; sight, sound, and spatial awareness are obvious. Less easy to understand is intuition (immediate cognition) which give us impressions and insights without proof or cognitive reasoning.
Calming the mind and directing our awareness inwards reduces noise and helps us notice our biases.
Cognitive cheat sheets
Bringing our mental shortcuts into conscious awareness will help you notice which ones you are more susceptible to.
By learning about our own biases we can develop the habit of countering our own self-deception. Combined with meditative practice, we can make great strides in separating signal from noise.
Sine Identitatis
There are no ideologies that have got it all correct. The world is dynamic, culture is evolving, knowledge is growing. Our identities should too.
If we are to separate signal from noise we need to be as objectively positioned as possible. We need to remain open to other perspectives, to participate in rational thinking, and to tune into our sensory organism.
Sacrifice your sacred cows
What is sacred to me? or What ideas do I need to be true? Since I sacrificed my sacred cows my thinking is clearer, my biases less persistent, and my decision-making more effective.
To sacrifice our sacred cows, abandon our group identities, and stand alone against the crowd, are acts of courage. As more of us that take these steps, and find each other we can utilize distributed cognition and form a decentralised complex of signal detection.
Wason selection task
A simple test comparing the quality of deductive reasoning where less than 10% of individuals are able to deduce the correct answer. When 4 people in a group are given the same task, and told that they can work together to solve the problem the success rate leaps reliably to 80%.
For deductive reasoning to function it needs multi-perspective interaction. We need each other, to work together, to enter conversation, to employ dialogos.
Cognitive partnerships
Here are 8 points for consideration when working in partnership with someone. The aim is to help each other overcome each others biases.
Awareness of biases, pointing out overconfidence, identifying past mistakes, staying curious, humility and growth, understanding irritation, playing devil’s advocate, falsifiability.
We need to develop an effective mindset to be able to remain open to feedback, and to provide feedback in a useful fashion.
Empathy Circle
A structured dialogue process that can be learned in about 15 minutes, and dramatically deepens listening skills, neutralising defensive positioning, whilst affording clarity of shared understanding.
I believe this is the groundwork on which signal detection can be built.
Previous article in this series “Cognitive Partnerships”
