Glossary
Thought Process
What is a thought process?
A thought process is a way of forming, connecting, or working with ideas. Drawing an inference, considering alternatives, and solving a problem are examples. It is a broad term rather than one psychological mechanism.
Meaning and everyday example
In everyday speech, a thought process means someone’s way of thinking or line of reasoning. “Talk me through your thought process” asks how they reached an idea or decision.
For example, when choosing a route, you might remember yesterday’s traffic, compare two alternatives, and choose the one that seems more reliable. Remembering, comparing, and deciding are different parts of that thought process.
What supports thinking?
- Perception helps make sense of sensory information.
- Attention selects information for further processing.
- Memory provides information from previous experience.
- Language can help represent and communicate ideas.
- Reasoning concerns drawing conclusions, while problem-solving concerns finding a way to address a difficulty.
- Imagination lets us consider things that are not present.
- Creativity concerns producing ideas that are both new and useful.
- Metacognition is thinking about and monitoring our own thinking.
Automatic and effortful thinking
One research distinction concerns relatively automatic responses and more demanding hypothetical reasoning. Evans and Stanovich discuss this distinction while cautioning that different dual-process theories should not be treated as one account.
Why it matters
“Thought process” is a starting point for an explanation. Be more specific when possible: did someone retrieve a memory, compare alternatives, or draw an inference?