Clinical decision making Flashcards
What is a medical error?
An error is defined as the failure of a planned action tobe completed as intended (i.e., error of execution) or theuse of a wrong plan to achieve an aim (i.e., error ofplanning).
What is a confirmation bias?
The tendency to search or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s own preconceptions
What is the framing effect
§ Framing effect – When presented with treatment descriptions, described in positive, negative or neutral terms:
o Older adults – more likely to agree to treatment described in positive terms as opposed to neutrally or negative.
What is heuristics?
§ Heuristics – rules of thumb, educated guesses, mental shortcuts.
What are two types of heuristics
o Representativeness heuristic – the subjective probability that a stimulus belongs to a certain class based on how ‘typical’ of that class it appears to be regardless of the base rate probability. o Availability heuristic – probabilities are estimated based on how easily and/or vividly they can be called to mind.
What is a sunk cost fallacy
§ The only factor affecting future action should be the future cost/benefits ratio but humans do not always act rationally and often the more we have invested in the past, the more we are prepared to invest in a problem in the future – the “Sunk Cost Fallacy” or “Concorde effect”.
What is anchoring
§ Anchoring and adjustment – a psychological heuristic (cognitive shortcut that may result in a suboptimal outcome) that influences the way people intuitively assess probabilities.
§ Per this heuristic, people start with the implicitly suggested reference point (the “anchor”) and adjust it to reach their estimate (adjustments).
What is the gambler’s fallacy
§ Gambler’s fallacy – a logical fallacy involving the mistaken belief that past events will affect future events when dealing with random activities, such as with gambling games.
