Cognitive Accuracy:

What Do We Mean by “Cognitive Accuracy”?

We use this term to refer to behavior based on the following principles:

We humans are flawed and fallible.

It might seem odd to say that “accuracy” derives from our foibles and flaws. But think of it this way: if you have a pretty good idea that now and then you will make a mistake, wouldn’t you want to find ways to minimize the outcome of those mistakes? Embracing the idea that you, and we, and all humans, are all flawed and prone to messing up or missing a detail or muffing a call, gives you a head-start on catching your mistakes before they can snowball. And since ANYBODY could have made the same mistake, it isn't neccessary for you to waste a lot of time and energy upsetting youself needlessly and making yourself feel stupid or blaming yourself or others. You goofed—all you did was prove you are human. Not a bad thing, at least when done in moderation.


Accurate decisions and judgments depend on three critical behaviors:

1. Seeking and using accurate information.

Seems obvious, and yet we all have a habit of assuming we know the latest on a particular subject and end up basing our decision on old data. We don’t notice change, or don’t want to, so we act like a driver who’s looking in the rearview mirror. He knows where’s he been and thinking he can get on down the road by looking backwards. Wouldn’t you rather ride with someone who looks out the front window and notices the light turning red?

 

2. Using accurate evaluations and information processing.

If you have good information, but when you add it up, you don’t use standard math, you won’t get a reasonable answer, will you? A lot of us tend to learn a few painful lessons and continue to apply them to every problem we encounter, whether it makes sense or not. If you grab your trusty hammer to whack at a screw, you will most likely screw things up. Accurate processing means understanding how things interact, what numbers and statistics means, applying probability to your answers, recognizing how far your analysis can take you and when you would benefit from a new point of view or ask for advice from someone else, etc.

 

3. Processing information here and now.

Because we tend not to notice change, and because we tend to use the same old tricks we learned ages ago, we also tend not to work on the problem in front of us, but rather we re-fight old fights, and refigure old problems. This new situation looks vaguely like ones we have encountered (we don’t see any change at least) and our trusty hammer has “always worked in the past” (we tend to ignore all the times it failed us), so why do anything different? Why? Because today’s problem is most likely very different from others we have run into, and because a hammer might very well smash something important.

Cognitive accuracy means paying attention to the problem at hand, observing what’s going on here and now, and looking for solutions that apply to this problem, even if we’ve never tried them before.

If we apply cognitive accuracy to our relationships, intimate, social, business, education, we stand a better chance of developing overall positive relationships, running healthy businesses, teaching our children to think more clearly...promoting a better and more likely future for ourselves, our children, and the world.