Decision-making

Inductive and deductive reasoning both feed into the making of judgments — drawing conclusions, forming opinions, and evaluating people, objects or events based on existing knowledge and available evidence. Judging, from a person's specific characteristics (being talkative, mixing easily with people, persuading others with ease), that they would suit a salesperson's job is the book's example of a judgment built from particular evidence. Some judgments are automatic and need no conscious effort, occurring as a matter of habit, such as applying the brakes on seeing a red light; others, like evaluating a novel or judging the beauty of a painting, draw on past knowledge, experience and personal preference, and are not independent of a person's beliefs and attitudes. Judgments also change with new information: a newly joined teacher first judged as very strict may, after further weeks of interaction, come to be judged as student-friendly instead.

Decision-making, closely tied to judgment, is the process of choosing among several known alternatives by evaluating the cost and benefit associated with each — deciding between psychology and economics as a Class XI subject, weighed against interest, future prospects, availability of books and quality of teaching (evaluated by talking to seniors and faculty and attending a few classes), is the book's example. Decision-making differs from problem solving generally in one key respect: in decision-making, the possible solutions or choices are already known, and the task is simply to select one, rather than to work one out from scratch — choosing between practising for a state-level badminton tournament and preparing for an approaching final exam is a decision made by weighing all possible outcomes. Because people differ in their priorities, their decisions in an identical situation can differ, and since real-life decisions are often required quickly, it is not always possible to evaluate …