What is Intuition?

AUTHOR - Tamanna Ray

We often come across crossroads where we find ourselves stuck between intuition and logic. Intuitions might be confusing, but mostly they are correct far more often than they are wrong.

Intuition is often in similar usage with gut feelings, inner voice or sixth sense. The term is derived from the Latin verb intueri, which means 'to consider', or from the late Middle English word intuit, which means 'to contemplate'. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is defined as “the ability to understand or know something immediately, without conscious reasoning.” Intuition, instinct, and insight are frequently mistaken. Instinct is described as an inborn impulse or incentive to act, which is usually triggered by external events or stimuli, for instance, withdrawal of hand immediately when in contact with a hot object. Whereas, intuition is learned behaviour.

The term "insight" refers to the ability to "see into" the structure of a problem or situation. One can gain intuitive insight into a situation. However, deliberate techniques can also be used to get insight. Furthermore, intuition has been viewed as a progressive and experience-based process, whereas, insight has been viewed as a genuinely discontinuous phenomenon.

Recently, it has become a major topic of research in the field of psychology. Most individuals agree that intuitive responses manifest as ideas or feelings, which then drive our thoughts and actions. It is believed that humans notice patterns in the stream of experiences that they experience without even realising. Despite widespread acceptance of this concept among psychologists and the general public, scientists have long been without a reliable test to collect objective data on intuition and even confirm its existence. With the help of recent technology, scientists have studied participants working at a modified version of the Waterloo Gestalt Closure Task with fMRI. The medial OFC, the lateral portion of the amygdala, the anterior insula, and the ventral occipitotemporal areas were found to be active as a result of a direct contrast between intuitive and nonintuitive judgements, and parametric analysis.

"Intuition is nothing more and nothing less than recognition," wrote Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking Fast and Slow. We store experiences consciously and subconsciously. These memories, which we might not even be aware of, surface back when needed in form of ideas or sensations.

Intuition has been in discussion within the fields of philosophy for a very long time. People often seek to harness the significant power of one self’s intuition. Furthermore, intuition is also being tied with artificial intelligence to bring forth the "fourth generation of AI". Though intuition is a recent subject of interest, it is expected to bring great discoveries in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, AI and much more in the future.