The Anatomy of Intuition

What's your Intuition Quotient?

By Daniel Cappon, published on May 01, 1993 - last reviewed on August 30, 2004

Some people call intuition "the sixth sense," but that is misleading for several reasons. Most importantly, intuition goes way beyond its perceptual base.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, "Everyone has an opinion on intuition but no one does much about it" In trying to do something more about it than define it descriptively, I have had to devise an operational definition, specifying not only what it is but what it does. As I sifted through the definitions of intuition, some features began to take shape. I recognized that there are elements, perhaps innate, that are part of the structure of intuition. And there are those that make it run. There are, I believe, four parts to the entire phenomenon:

o The capacity or ability to intuit, which I believe is innate, as is general intelligence. In fact, I believe that it is part of general intelligence, or what is called the "g factor." The essential ability for intuition comprises 20 specific skills. Examining them is to understand the "anatomy" of intuition.

o The accessing variables, which tap and trigger the process. If the capacity is the anatomy of intuition, then these triggering factors are its physiology. They are what make it run. Prime among them is being steeped in a field of information -- and then being able to defocus. Another spark is playing heuristically-asking "What if?"

o The process itself, which is entirely silent and unconscious. It can be inferred only from the application of intuition in some area and observing any resulting action. Or studying the differences between intuits and those who are not.

o The sources, or determinants, of any individual's intuitive capacity. These include not only genetic inheritance but environmental background, the personality, personal experience, and expertise. These elements are incorporated in my questionnaire, the Cappon Intuitive Profile.

THE ANATOMY

I came up with a list of approximately 20 characteristics of intuition. Immediately, they began to sort themselves hierarchically, from low-level perception to higher-level ideation. Intuitive capacity spans the way you look and see and hear -- being perceptive -- to understanding the meanings of things. These cardinal skills of the intuitive capacity divide themselves neatly into two classes: the lower level of skills of perception, such as the ability to estimate the passage of time, and a higher level of cognitive or ideational skills, such as foresight; at the highest level is the ability to divine the meaning of things, perceive general laws.

I refer to the perceptual, skills as input skills; they are latent and passive, just there. For instance, passive imagination is the ability to produce images merely upon shutting your eyes. Images come to you and manifest themselves spontaneously. I refer to the ideational, skills as output skills; they are engaged only in response to a situation or stimulus. You look at a cloud in the sky and various images come to mind. This kind of imagination is stimulated by something.

A number of these skills have been described and investigated for other purposes by cognitive psychologists. The skill of stimulated imagination, for example is the basis of the Rorschach test. But unlike conventional psychologists, I am not evaluating the imagery for pathology; I am interested in the basic capacity to generate imagery.

The input skills that are part of intuition include:

o perceptual closure on insufficient time. This is the skill of subliminal effect, knowing what something is after minimal exposure to it. You don't have time to see it properly-but you see it just the same. You may see something for 1/25 of a second without even being aware, but you can report what you have seen.

o perceptual closure on insufficient definition. In this, you can identify what something is even though it is obscured by lack of clarity. It is knowing what the image is behind the "snow" on your television screen. You know what you are looking at without having all of the information.

o perceptual recognition. This is the ability to find Waldo, for example. Waldo is a great test of intuitive capacity.

o positive perceptual discrimination, which rests on the ability to distinguish one thing from another. Several items are flashed before you and you are asked what you see.

o negative perceptual discrimination tests your ability to recognize what wasn't flashed before you. "Which of these items didn't you see?"

o synthesis, or "Gestalt" insight, which is the ability to see the forest through the tress. You see elements but have to put various items together in your mind's eye to construct a whole.

o time flow estimation, or protension, which measures your ability to quickly register time, to know how long something took to get to a certain point. Intuits don't watch the clock to have a three-minute egg.

o retrieving of memory, or "quick memory." You take in a whole complex scene and yet remember specific details of it. I test it by flashing a very crowded scene of Picadilly Circus-you see a very busy image. And then you're asked four questions about it that require you to retrieve specific information. What time was it? How many satellites did the BBC building have? What animals did you see? It's an intuitive memory because you have to perceive it whole, in less than seven seconds, and extract information you are probably not even aware you are taking in.