Can critical thinking be taught?

A MEAL of fried rice and a drink costs three dollars. If the rice costs two dollars more than the drink, how much does the drink cost? If you answered one dollar; welcome to the club of the majority of people who answered this question wrongly! The correct answer is 50 cents (the rice costs 2.50 - which is two dollars more than the drink and the total is three dollars).

Answering such a seemingly easy question wrongly has a neurological root that is at the heart of the quest of critical thinking. The human brain represents only 1% of the body mass but uses 20% of the energy in the body. It is wired to conserve its energy and avoid any computationally demanding operations.