Errors in Thinking

Question 1

Is most of our thinking conscious or unconscious?

Answer 1

Unconscious

Question 2

What does a lot of our conscious thinking involve?

Answer 2

• shortcuts

Question 3

What are the 2 modes of thinking?

Answer 3

• System 1 - quick, automatic, very prone to irrational bias (use most of time)
• System 2 - slower, more logical, more rational

Question 4

What is the third rapid unconscious thinking brain?

Answer 4

• route direct from thalamus to amygdala, cuts out the cortex altogether. There is a slower path that travels up to the cortex for possible conscious processing

Question 5

What are the common shortcuts in humans?

Answer 5

• Heuristics
• being on auto pilot
• attribution bias
• Discounting of disconfirmatory evidence
• Inadvertently putting people into sets
• Availability bias
• Affective bias
• Cognitive dissonance
• Pressure to conform
• The effects of stress and fatigue
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Loss aversion

Question 6

Explain 1. Heuristics?

Answer 6

• ‘rule of thumb’ solutions, a quick decision making process that quickly taks a best fit approach
• allows us to focus on key facts

Question 7

Explain 2. being on ‘auto pilot’?

Answer 7

• Using a pre- existing schema to react to a situation

- trouble occurs when the schema does not quite fit the situation

Question 8

Explain 3. attribution bias?

Answer 8

• when you attribute our errors to situational factors (situational flaw), or we attribute errors of others to character flaws

Question 9

Explain 4. discounting of disconfirmatory evidence?

Answer 9

• tendency to stick with a diagnosis once it’s been chosen, even when new/conflicting information comes in.

Question 10

Explain 5. Inadvertently putting people into ‘sets’?

Answer 10

• eg. people for whom I feel empathy/ don’t

Question 11

Explain 6. Availability bias?

Answer 11

• Tending to come up with a solution that happens to be on your mind

Question 12

Explain 7. Affective bias?

Answer 12

• Basing your decisions on your emotional reaction to a patient

Question 13

Explain 8. The theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger)?

Answer 13

• If we find ourselves acting in a way that does not fit with our thoughts or values, this causes discomfort - often we change thinking over actions (eg stapler borrow and theft)

Question 14

Explain 9. Pressure to conform?

Answer 14

• Having a mate greatly increases the ability to give correct answers
• 3 or more opposing people is enough to encourage conformity

Question 15

Explain 10. The effects of stress and fatigue?

Answer 15

• It causes ability to think flexibly to decline, we are far more likely to resort to quick/automatic/error-prone thinking

Question 16

Explain 11. Diffusion of responsibility?

Answer 16

The more people are aware of a problem, the more everybody thinks someone else will do something about it.

Question 17

Explain 12. Loss aversion?

Answer 17

Losing is deemed to be psychologically twice as powerful compared with winning - leading to irrational decisions when one is fearful of losing.

Question 18

List some ways in which the risk of medical errors can be minimised?

Answer 18

• Be realistic
• Safety netting
• Provisionally diagnose
• red flags
• reduce stress
• hierarchy and pressure to conform
• work in teams - share, supervise, check work - reflective practice