Studies have shown that the amount of information we can retrieve at any point in time is only a tiny fraction of what we actually know. What is particularly fascinating is that people are quite accurate about their metacognitive judgements, that is what they believe to know about their own knowledge. Most people have had a "tip-of-the-tongue" experience that occurs when we try to recall a forgotten piece of information, like a name. We have a subjective conviction that we "know" the information, but we are unable to actually retrieve it. If wrong information is proposed, we immediately reject it, even though we still can’t retrieve the forgotten data. This experience provides a good example of the separation of the content of knowledge from the feeling of knowing.
Did you ever try to change a person’s mind about a particular issue? It can be a considerable challenge. There is mounting evidence that most people don't change their minds just by learning new facts; they change their minds by realizing that what they know no longer feels true. People who emphatically resist any effort to change their minds do not do so on the basis of rationality, but emotionality. Overtly, the conversation may appear to involve rational arguments, but the root of what is governing the conversation is the feeling of knowing.
This feeling of knowing is a sensation, much like touch or sight. In fact, this feeling of knowing can be elicited directly through electrical stimulation of a very specific area of the brain. This feeling happens to us and is usually not something that we can consciously control. Moreover, while it may seem like this feeling is a confirmation of knowledge based on critical reasoning – evidence suggests otherwise.
This feeling of knowing has typically been associated with the concept of "intuition". Studies have shown that highly creative people often have the intuitive feeling that they are on the right track to solving a problem, and can even sense that they are about to reach the solution before they actually do so. This is very similar to the feeling of knowing that a person has about some piece of information before they can actually retrieve it. These metacognitive feelings serve to interface or provide a link between our implicit-unconscious-automatic mind on the one hand, and our explicit-conscious-controlled mind on the other.
About The Institute
- Strategy Praxis™
- The Strategy Praxis™ Institute is a research and educational organization dedicated exclusively to the advancement of strategy. The Strategy Praxis™ Institute offers pragmatic, results-oriented, client-centered programs on all aspects of strategy. Strategy Praxis™ refers to the comprehensive system for strategy formulation, implementation and assessment developed by the Institute. The goal is to assist practitioners in doing strategy in real life where the stakes are high, information often inadequate, conditions constantly shifting and the consequences of actions uncertain.
