Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving Flashcards
7 cards from real TALENTLENS practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving flashcards as text
Which type of reasoning moves from specific observations to a general conclusion?
Answer: Inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning builds general principles from specific observed cases, though conclusions are always probabilistic rather than certain.
A critical thinker evaluating a statistical claim reads: 'Drug X reduced symptoms by 50%.' What is the MOST important follow-up question?
Answer: 50% compared to what baseline or control group?
A percentage reduction is meaningless without knowing the reference point; 50% of a 2% rate is very different from 50% of an 80% rate.
In the context of TalentLens assessments, 'inference' refers to:
Answer: Drawing conclusions that go beyond the literal text based on available evidence
Inference involves reading between the lines to draw logical conclusions supported but not explicitly stated by the evidence.
Two engineers disagree on the cause of a system outage. Engineer A says it was a software bug; Engineer B says it was a hardware failure. What is the BEST critical thinking approach?
Answer: Gather logs, test each hypothesis independently, and follow the evidence
Hypotheses should be tested with empirical evidence rather than resolved by authority, voting, or untested action.
Which problem-solving heuristic involves working backward from the desired goal to determine the necessary steps?
Answer: Backward chaining
Backward chaining starts at the goal and identifies prerequisites at each step until reaching the current state.
An argument states: 'We should adopt Policy X because Country Y adopted it and their economy improved.' What critical evaluation step is MOST needed?
Answer: Check whether other variables explain Country Y's improvement and whether conditions are comparable
Before applying another country's policy, you must assess whether contextual differences and confounding variables invalidate the comparison.
A team's brainstorming session produces 30 ideas. The NEXT critical thinking step in structured problem-solving is to:
Answer: Apply criteria-based evaluation to prioritize and select the most viable ideas
After divergent idea generation, convergent evaluation using defined criteria filters ideas to those most feasible and aligned with goals.