Argument Mapper
Enhanced Critical Thinking
Argument Mapper helps intelligence analysts, criminal investigators and legal practitioners make sense of complex cases and draw sound conclusions. Structured argument mapping methodology and intuitive visualization techniques combine to support fluid application of evidence-based reasoning, overcoming bias.
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Build hypotheses, link supporting or refuting evidence and structure arguments, all with simple, fluid interactions.
Intuitive, structured, evidence-based approach encourages clear and logical reasoning.
Rich, easily understood visualization promotes shared understanding and peer critique for efficient, confident decision-making.
- Intelligence analyst
Evidence & Assessment Visualization
Nodes and icons quickly summarize argument contents, types of evidence and user credibility assessments. Links illustrate the support for or against hypotheses.
Simple, Flexible Logic Expression
Logic flow is clearly communicated through visuals and text. Behind the scenes, configurable combining gates apply conjunctive logic and Baconian (ordinal) probability to determine the combined impact of evidence.
Automatic Hypothesis Evaluation
Assess evidence using a simple scale. Inferential force automatically propagates up the reasoning chain to calculate support for or against parent hypotheses.
Highlight Assumptions and Gaps
Gaps and assumptions highlight missing knowledge or suppositions that may affect judgements or confidence assessments. These nodes can also guide follow-on evidence or intelligence collection efforts.
Collaboration
Annotate evidence or assessments to clarify rationales and exchange comments. Share and collaborate on structured reasoning.
Humans are vulnerable to cognitive biases such as neglect of probability, framing effect, confirmation bias, conservatism (belief revision) and anchoring. Argument Mapper is purpose-built to address these biases in deductive and abductive analysis, and to support the tasks and needs of intelligence analysts and consumers.
Argument Mapper: Countering Cognitive Biases in Analysis with Critical (Visual) Thinking
William Wright, David Sheffield, Stephanie Santosa
Argument Mapper provides an easy-to-use, theoretically sound, web-based interactive software tool that enables the application of evidence-based reasoning to analytic questions. Designed in collaboration with analytic methodologists, this tool combines structured argument mapping methodology with visualization techniques to help analysts make sense of complex problems and overcome cognitive biases.