Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

arrow_back_ios_new
MENTAL MODEL · M11179

Intuition Pumps

Intuition Pumps
StructureHigh supportCritical Thinking
Included
account_tree

Updated 2026-08-13

Loading revision record…

INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

A concept from the philosopher Daniel Dennett: a device, usually a vivid hypothetical scenario, that pumps an intuition so it can be inspected rather than merely felt. The purpose is to expose the hidden assumptions a person holds about a concept, and to test whether those assumptions survive a carefully varied case. The qualification is that the pump is a diagnostic tool rather than an argument: a strong intuition it elicits does not by itself establish the conclusion, since intuitions can be artifacts of the scenario's framing.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Scenario design: construct a hypothetical that isolates the variable your concept depends on. - Intuition elicitation: record the immediate judgment the scenario produces before analyzing it. - Assumption exposure: vary one feature of the scenario and see whether the intuition survives.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Concepts are usually applied automatically, so the assumptions behind them stay invisible until a case forces an explicit judgment. A well-designed hypothetical makes the person commit to a specific answer, which reveals the rule they were implicitly using. Varying the scenario then tests whether that rule is principled or merely a response to the particular framing.

MINIMUM ACTION

In progress 0/1

Practice this model in one real situation:

Check to track your progress (stored locally)
Learning progress0%
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more

Source support: Explicit

  • link
    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_pumpZH · Explicit
    verified

RELATED MODELS

Related model

Sherlocking

Sherlocking refers to the phenomenon where a platform owner copies the features of a third-party developer's app and integrates them into the platform, thereby rendering the third-party app obsolete. The term originates from Apple's Sherlock search tool, which was introduced in Mac OS 8.5 and later incorporated features similar to those of third-party search utilities like Watson, leading to the coining of the term.

arrow_forwardRelated model

E-Prime

E-Prime (short for English-Prime or English Prime, sometimes É or E′) denotes a restricted form of English in which authors avoid all forms of the verb to be. E-Prime excludes forms such as be, being, been, present tense forms (am, is, are), past tense forms (was, were) along with their positive and…

arrow_forwardRelated model

Affect Heuristic

People often make decisions not based on cost-benefit analysis, but based on their immediate emotional reactions (liking/disliking) to things.

arrow_forward