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Back to Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age by University of Michigan

4.8
stars
1,348 ratings

About the Course

Most professions these days require more than general intelligence. They require in addition the ability to collect, analyze and think about data. Personal life is enriched when these same skills are applied to problems in everyday life involving judgment and choice. This course presents basic concepts from statistics, probability, scientific methodology, cognitive psychology and cost-benefit theory and shows how they can be applied to everything from picking one product over another to critiquing media accounts of scientific research. Concepts are defined briefly and breezily and then applied to many examples drawn from business, the media and everyday life. What kinds of things will you learn? Why it’s usually a mistake to interview people for a job. Why it’s highly unlikely that, if your first meal in a new restaurant is excellent, you will find the next meal to be as good. Why economists regularly walk out of movies and leave restaurant food uneaten. Why getting your picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated usually means your next season is going to be a disappointment. Why you might not have a disease even though you’ve tested positive for it. Why you’re never going to know how coffee affects you unless you conduct an experiment in which you flip a coin to determine whether you will have coffee on a given day. Why it might be a mistake to use an office in a building you own as opposed to having your office in someone else’s building. Why you should never keep a stock that’s going down in hopes that it will go back up and prevent you from losing any of your initial investment. Why it is that a great deal of health information presented in the media is misinformation....

Top reviews

JM

Jul 28, 2019

This course is great! I recommend it to anyone who wants to be able to reason better and have more capabilities in making decisions. Thank you Dr. Nisbett and Coursera for providing this course.

MK

Apr 7, 2020

Anyone beginner can take this course and be 100 times more understanding of information via any media while also perhaps understanding what is the best choice in some give scenario IRL.

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276 - 300 of 314 Reviews for Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age

By RT2020

Aug 6, 2021

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By Ritesh A

Jul 30, 2020

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By Sachin P

Jul 20, 2019

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By Jonhny G G R

Jan 12, 2021

Veeeery interesting the course, really! If you enroll, be aware that you'll learn some very basic ways to approach any given event and be able to reason it out with confidence that you are using your brain effectively. I will not give 5 stars because the course is soooooooo rhetorical and its format is very parochial... so don't expect a lot of examples and graphics... usually is the slide of the script or the camera pointing to the professor. But the professor really understands the topic and can take hold of your attention most of the time. In general, It was worthwhile.

By Monib S

Aug 24, 2018

Highly relevant and useful content,Being IT Professional I believe this will help in managing people more effectively without cognitive bias and also making critical decisions on go no go /feasibility studies with better overall understanding and best outcomes ! BIG Thanks Prof. Nisbett your presentation style is apt and simple to understand ,duration of each module and quiz makes this highly interesting and engrossing course

By Sujata S

Jul 8, 2017

I think the professor was kind and laid-back. I like the ample use of examples. I would recommend it to anyone who needs an intro to logical reasoning. I am an LSAT tutor and might even recommend that some of my students watch this course before working on their LSAT to keep their mental senses open before they read anything. Thanks Dr. Nisbett.

By Isha D

Aug 14, 2021

I STRONGLY RECCOMEND THIS COURSE TO EVERYONE OUT THERE. THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT COURSE FOR ME. I INITIALLY TOOK THIS ONLY FOR CRITICAL THINKING BUT IT COVERED MANY MORE IMPORTANT TOPICS LIKE STATISTICS,OPPURTUNITY COST,PSYCHOLOGY AND LOGIC. I AM FULLY SATISFIED WITH THIS COURSE!!

By Chi P

Aug 21, 2021

I learned statistics, economics, philosophy, and psychology - all in this course. That was certainly much more than I had expected. The examples used were very practical. Yet I find some explanations unclear and not comprehensive enough and had to google to understand better.

By Enrique M L

Dec 15, 2020

I enjoyed a lot this course. Is an opportunity to learn about basic concepts and applications of statistics, data analysis, skills to take decisions and logic.

By Jill C

Jun 2, 2023

Interesting course that bult on a lot of what I was familiar with. I do feel It will help me to make better decisions in work and my personal life.

By Sabikun A H

Sep 6, 2020

Good course. Relates on a lot of topic. Psychology majors may benefit specially if they're just starting their psychology course.

By Gao X

Aug 30, 2020

Quite innovative and interesting which makes me reflect on the essence of the science study

By André R S

Jan 6, 2020

Good to recall some logics, statistics and human behaviours biases that we tend to forget.

By uy t q

Apr 5, 2022

The knowledge is so helpful. But i think i need spend more time to grasp it

By Abdullah A

Jun 25, 2020

it's so great and surprising, but, for my age (17), needs more explanation

By Abhimanyu K

Apr 11, 2020

Nice course. Basic knowledge of decision making and some basic statistics

By Tania T

May 18, 2020

Great videos and cover a reasonable range of critical thinking theories.

By Chidube V E

Aug 20, 2020

A phenomenal course presented in digestible bits. Brilliant!

By Jasmin A

Nov 10, 2018

Very interesting course I just found it to be dry at times

By Meshal A

Apr 16, 2019

Excellent instructor. Course is full of examples

By Bhavesh L

Jul 2, 2020

Excellent content with such a experienced tutor

By Kadambeswaran B

Oct 4, 2020

good overview with good examples

By Stefano E

Mar 1, 2019

Interesting course.

By 148_SouvikMoitra

Jan 14, 2022

such a nice course

By Pouya P A

Feb 8, 2023

Perfect Course👌