Psychology Facts

▼ Intuition / 'Gut Feeling' ▼

》 Intuition is a form of knowledge that appears in consciousness without obvious deliberation. It is not magical but rather a faculty in which hunches are generated by the unconscious mind rapidly sifting through past experience and cumulative knowledge.

》 Often referred to as gut feelings, intuition tends to arise holistically and quickly, without awareness of the underlying mental processing of information. Scientists have repeatedly demonstrated how information can register on the brain without conscious awareness and positively influence decision-making and other behavior.

》 Psychologists believe that intuition relies on powers of pattern-matching, as the mind combs experience stored in long-term memory for similar situations and presents in-the-moment judgments based on them.

》 Some researchers believe there are individual differences in broad intuitive ability. A recent study found two clusters of intuitive skill. One is related to insight—such as conceiving a new metaphor—which is linked to intelligence. The other, related to implicit learning, or learning complex information without being aware of what youve learned—say, picking up a new language—is not strongly linked to intelligence.

》 There are two types of intuition:

Moral intuition is a moral judgment, generally about a specific issue or a particular action. But it may also concern a moral rule or principle that is not a result of inferential reasoning. It is not a conclusion of ones other beliefs but arises on its own.

Introverted intuition is the ability to focus on the subjective, internal world of the unconscious to find abstract and symbolic connections and relationships between the unconscious and the environment.

Introverted intuition occurs when the ability to put puzzles of information together, and come to exact conclusions, without realizing how it is happening.