Critical Thinking Flashcards
7 cards from real UDEE practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Critical Thinking flashcards as text
An officer is reviewing surveillance footage and notices a person entering a store at 3:05 PM but the receipt shows a purchase time of 2:58 PM. The most reasonable action is to:
Answer: Verify whether the store's camera clock and register clock are synchronized
Time discrepancies between devices are often caused by unsynchronized clocks and must be verified before drawing conclusions.
Which scenario best illustrates the concept of 'modus tollens' in logical reasoning?
Answer: If the alarm triggered, someone entered; the alarm did not trigger; therefore no one entered
Modus tollens: if P then Q; not Q; therefore not P — here, no alarm means no entry was triggered.
A supervisor tells an officer: 'Either the informant is lying, or the suspect was at the warehouse.' The officer confirms the informant told the truth. What follows?
Answer: The suspect was definitely at the warehouse
In a valid 'either/or' (disjunctive) argument, confirming one side as false forces the other side to be true.
An officer must prioritize three simultaneous radio calls: a domestic disturbance, a traffic accident with injuries, and a noise complaint. The most critical thinking skill here is:
Answer: Evaluating urgency and potential for harm to prioritize the injury accident first
Critical thinkers assess severity and life-safety risk to allocate limited response resources effectively.
Which statement represents an assumption rather than an established fact in an investigation?
Answer: The suspect must have known the victim's schedule to intercept her
Stating the suspect 'must have known' the victim's schedule is an inference presented as fact without direct evidence.
When evaluating information credibility, an officer should give LEAST weight to:
Answer: An anonymous tip that cannot be verified or sourced
Unverifiable anonymous tips lack source accountability and corroboration, making them the least credible form of information.
An officer concludes a person is intoxicated based solely on the smell of alcohol. This conclusion is an example of:
Answer: A reasonable inference that requires additional field tests to confirm
The odor of alcohol is an indicator but not proof of legal intoxication; standardized field sobriety tests are needed to confirm.