Clinical Reasoning Errors

Question 1

Anchoring

Answer 1

the tendency to focus on certain features of the patient presentation and then failing to adjust to new information

Question 2

Ascertainment Bias

Answer 2

• thinking is biased due to prior assumptions such as ageism, stigmatism, stereotyping

Question 3

Confirmation Bias

Answer 3

• you are looking for information that confirms your theory rather than information that rules it out

Question 4

Diagnostic Momentum

Answer 4

• when you make a diagnosis in your mind and it gather momentum and you end up excluding other possibilities

Question 5

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 5

• Blaming the patient and being judgemental, which results in clouded judgement that may affect workup and evaluation

Question 6

Overconfidence Bias

Answer 6

• when you think that you know more than you do, then you tend to act on incomplete information, hunches, or intuition

Question 7

Premature Closure

Answer 7

• when you accept a diagnosis before it has been fully verified

Question 8

Unpacking Principle

Answer 8

• when you fail to collect all the relevant data when making a differential diagnosis which could then lead you to miss something