Decision Making
How does an Accident and Emergency clinician know that a headache signifies lack of sleep rather than the onset of meningitis? An incorrect diagnosis at this point could have very serious consequences for the patient. If we assume that the clinician's expertise makes this judgement easier, how exactly does this happen? Are more expert clinicians looking at different pieces of information? Or are they examining the same information but they combine it in different ways?
Likewise, how does a surgeon know when to convert a cholecystectomy from laparoscopic to open? Why are some surgeons faster in making this decision than others? What information is weighted more heavily in such decisions, that coming from the patient or the surgeons' self-assessment of their expertise?
Questions such as the above fall within the field of judgement and decision-making research. This field focuses, first, on how people choose what cues to use and how much weight to put on each one of them in making a decision (judgement part) and, second, on the type of choices they make in different situations. These situations typically involve some degree of risk and / or uncertainty regarding the outcomes that are associated with different decision alternatives (decision-making part).
Project Details