Outline of thought

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to thought (thinking):

Thought (also called thinking) – mental process in which beings form psychological associations and models of the world. Thinking is manipulating information, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, reason and make decisions. Thought, the act of thinking, produces more thoughts. A thought may be an idea, an image, a sound or even control an emotional feeling.

Nature of thought
Thought (or thinking) can be described as all of the following:


 * An activity taking place in a:
 * brain – organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals (only a few invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, adult sea squirts and starfish do not have a brain). It is the physical structure associated with the mind.
 * mind – abstract entity with the cognitive faculties of consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory. Having a mind is a characteristic of living creatures. Activities taking place in a mind are called mental processes or cognitive functions.
 * computer (see below) – general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. Since a sequence of operations (an algorithm) can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem.
 * An activity of intelligence – intelligence is the intellectual process of which is marked by cognition, motivation, and self-awareness. Through intelligence, living creatures possess the cognitive abilities to learn, form concepts, understand, apply logic, and reason, including the capacities to recognize patterns, comprehend ideas, plan, problem solve, make decisions, retaining, and use language to communicate. Intelligence enables living creatures to experience and think.
 * A type of mental process – something that individuals can do with their minds. Mental processes include perception, memory, thinking, volition, and emotion. Sometimes the term cognitive function is used instead.
 * A biological adaptation mechanism
 * Neural network explanation: Thoughts are created by the summation of neural outputs and connections of which vectors form. These vectors describe the magnitude and direction of the connections and action between neurons. The graphs of these vectors can represent a network of neurons whose connections fire in different ways over time as synapses fire. These large thought vectors in the brain cause other vectors of activity.  For example: An input from the environment is received by the neural network.  The network changes the magnitude and outputs of individual neurons.  The altered network outputs the symbols needed to make sense of the input.

Types of thoughts
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Content of thoughts
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Types of thought (thinking)
Listed below are types of thought, also known as thinking processes.

Human thought
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Creative processes
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Decision-making
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Erroneous thinking
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Emotional intelligence (emotionally based thinking)
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Problem solving
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• Problem-solving strategy – steps one would use to find the problem(s) that are in the way to getting to one’s own goal. Some would refer to this as the ‘problem-solving cycle’ (Bransford & Stein, 1993). In this cycle one will recognize the problem, define the problem, develop a strategy to fix the problem, organize the knowledge of the problem cycle, figure-out the resources at the user's disposal, monitor one's progress, and evaluate the solution for accuracy.

• * – solving the problem in a model of the system before applying it to the real system

• * –  using a solution that solves an analogous problem

• * –  (especially among groups of people) suggesting a large number of solutions or ideas and combining and developing them until an optimum solution is found

• * –  breaking down a large, complex problem into smaller, solvable problems

• * –  assuming a possible explanation to the problem and trying to prove (or, in some contexts, disprove) the assumption

• * –  approaching solutions indirectly and creatively

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• * –  choosing an action at each step to move closer to the goal

• * –  assessing the output and interactions of an entire system

• * –  try to prove that the problem cannot be solved. The point where the proof fails will be the starting point for solving it

• * –  transforming the problem into another problem for which solutions exist

• * –  employing existing ideas or adapting existing solutions to similar problems

• * –  identifying the cause of a problem

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• * (in Russian: Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch, "theory of solving inventor's problems")

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Reasoning
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•  – reasoning by means of visual representations. Visualizing concepts and ideas with of diagrams and imagery instead of by linguistic or algebraic means

•  (erroneous) – a cognitive distortion in which emotion overpowers reason, to the point the subject is unwilling or unable to accept the reality of a situation because of it.

•  (erroneous) – logical errors

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• * – from data and theory:  p and q are correlated, and q is sufficient for p; hence, if p then (abducibly) q as cause

• * – from meaning postulate, axiom, or contingent assertion: if p then q (i.e., q or not-p)

• * – theory formation; from data, coherence, simplicity, and confirmation: (inducibly) "if p then q"; hence, if p then (deducibly-but-revisably) q

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•  – process in which an individual tries to determine the difference between what is right and what is wrong in a personal situation by using logic. This is an important and often daily process that people use in an attempt to do the right thing. Every day for instance, people are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to lie in a given situation. People make this decision by reasoning the morality of the action and weighing that against its consequences.

•  – from combinatorics and indifference: if p then (probably) q

•  – using "the concept of proportions when analyzing and solving a mathematical situation."

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•  – from data and presumption:  the frequency of qs among ps is high (or inference from a model fit to data); hence, (in the right context) if p then (probably) q

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•  – understanding and reasoning using concepts framed in words

•  – process of manipulating one's mental image of an object in order to reach a certain conclusion – for example, mentally constructing a piece of machinery to experiment with different mechanisms

Machine thought
• Artificial creativity

• Automated reasoning

• * Commonsense reasoning

• * Model-based reasoning

• * Opportunistic reasoning

• * Qualitative reasoning – automated reasoning about continuous aspects of the physical world, such as space, time, and quantity, for the purpose of problem solving and planning using qualitative rather than quantitative information

• * Spatial–temporal reasoning

• * Textual case based reasoning

• Computer program (recorded machine thought instructions)

• Human-based computation

Organizational thought
Organizational thought (thinking by organizations)


 * Organizational planning
 * Organizational planning
 * Organizational planning

Aspects of the thinker
Aspects of the thinker which may affect (help or hamper) his or her thinking:

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Properties of thought
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Fields that study thought
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Nootropics (cognitive enhancers and smart drugs)
Substances that improve mental performance:

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Organizational thinking concepts
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Organizations

 * Associations pertaining to thought
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Books

 * Handbook of Automated Reasoning

Periodicals

 * Journal of Automated Reasoning
 * Journal of Formalized Reasoning
 * Positive Thinking Magazine

Television programs

 * Thinkabout (U.S. TV series)

People notable for their extraordinary ability to think

 * Geniuses
 * List of Nobel laureates (see also Nobel Prize)
 * Polymaths

Scientists in fields that study thought

 * List of cognitive scientists

Scholars of thinking

 * Aaron T. Beck
 * Barry K. Beyer
 * Edward de Bono
 * David D. Burns – author of Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy and The Feeling Good Handbook. Burns popularized Aaron T. Beck's cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) when his book became a best seller during the 1980s.
 * Tony Buzan
 * Noam Chomsky
 * Albert Ellis
 * Howard Gardner
 * Eliyahu M. Goldratt
 * Douglas Hofstadter
 * Ray Kurzweil
 * Marvin Minsky
 * Richard W. Paul
 * Steven Pinker
 * Baruch Spinoza
 * Robert Sternberg

Related concepts

 * Cognition
 * Knowledge
 * Multiple intelligences
 * Strategy
 * Structure
 * System

Awareness and perception
• Attention

• Cognition

• Cognitive dissonance

• Cognitive map

• Concept

• Concept map

• Conceptual framework

• Conceptual model

• Consciousness

• Domain knowledge

• Heuristics in judgment and decision making

• Information

• Intelligence

• Intuition

• Knowledge

• Memory suppression

• Mental model

• Metaknowledge (knowledge about knowledge)

• Mind map

• Mindfulness (psychology)

• Percept

• Perception

• Self-awareness

• Self-concept

• Self-consciousness

• Self-knowledge

• Self-realization

• Sentience

• Situational awareness

• Understanding

Learning and memory
• Autodidacticism

• Biofeedback

• Cognitive dissonance

• Dual-coding theory

• Eidetic memory (total recall)

• Emotion and memory

• Empiricism

• Feedback

• Feedback loop

• Free association

• Heuristics

• Hyperthymesia

• Hypnosis

• Hypothesis

• Imitation

• Inquiry

• Knowledge management

• Language acquisition

• Memorization

• Memory and aging

• Memory inhibition

• Memory-prediction framework

• Method of loci

• Mnemonics

• Neurofeedback

• Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)

• Observation

• Pattern recognition

• Question

• Reading

• Recall

• Recognition

• Recollection (recall)

• Scientific method

• Self-perception theory

• Speed reading

• Study Skills

• Subvocalization

• Transfer of learning

• Transfer of training

• Visual learning