| Does anyone have a good theory for what they think intuition is? I'm interested in process. What is the mapping algorithm that transforms problem into solution? While intuition appears to be magic, I believe that there is a very concrete process happening in our subconscious. My personal guess is that we're transforming the problem into a format more suited for different modules of our brain to process. For the table problem we apply 2 transformations. One is referred to as a calculation, the other as intuition. "Calculation" involves transforming the table into symbols (mathematics) for the language/logical part of our brain to process; the other transformation involves turning the table into a sort of fuzzy 3D visualization for the imaginative/spatial part of our brain to analyze. Both transformations yield transformed results. Symbols yield a symbolic/numeric solution, a fuzzy 3D visualization yields an equally fuzzy 3D solution. Funny how two different process that are both seemingly systematic are called different things. Why is one called intuition and the other not? |
The model itself cannot explain how it arrived to its conclusions; that could be done with the training data which are long gone.
Similarly to machine learning, humans can develop intuition about things by learning and training in the subject (that's why I believe rote learning is actually quite useful).
Just like with intuition, it crucially depends on (and varies with) the input data (experience) and there can be different models, but successful models (those that give good results on training data) are quite similar in appearance.
Of course, the big disadvantage of intuition is that you cannot explain it to others, even if it works. They have to believe that you are expert and made correct judgements (that you have correct model). That's why science (and especially mathematics) has tried to formalize the process, so that people could double check the reasoning and wouldn't have to rely on expert authority. That's why the two processes are called differently, I think.