Cognitive Flexibility Theory: The Rules

Another cognitive difference that appears to matter is whether you are a “rule learner…

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When you’re adept at extracting the underlying principles or “rules” that differentiate types of problems, you’re more successful at picking the right solutions in unfamiliar situations.

Military contexts, perhaps because they have long struggled with the need for distributed authority and responsiveness, abound with examples of heuristics. Napoleon, for example, told his armies to ‘march to the sound of the guns’ instead of waiting for orders. Another example: when the battle plan falls apart – capture the high ground, stay in tou

These enable people to reason about consequences of action in ways that are very flexible.