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PubMed1976

Order of information presentation and children's moral judgments.

It was hypothesized that age differences in use of intent information in children's moral judgments might be due to a recency effect in the judgments of younger children. A study was conducted to examine the effect of order of stimulus presentation on children's moral judgments. The information was presented to children, ages 4-5 and 8-9 years old, through stories with either normal information order, intent-consequence, or reversed order, consequence-intent. It was found that order has a significant impact on children's moral judgments. In addition, memory data were gathered which indicated that the pattern of forgetting was parallel to the pattern of information preference for the younger subjects. The findings suggested that younger subjects' relative neglect of intent in the normal order of information was based, in part, on their failure to remember the material correctly rather than on differential weighting of the 2 cues.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1992

Utilization of base-rate information during feeling-of-knowing judgments.

We examined whether subjects use base-rate information about item difficulty when making feeling-of-knowing judgments for items they failed to recall. First, the subjects attempted to recall the answers to general-information questions. Then, for those items they recalled incorrectly, half of the subjects received information about the normative probability of recall of each item while judging their feeling of knowing. The other subjects made their feeling-of-knowing judgments without receiving any base-rate information. Finally, all subjects had a forced-choice recognition test on those items to validate the accuracy of their feeling-of-knowing judgments. Relative to the no-base-rate information group, the base-rate group had lower feelings of knowing for normatively difficult items and higher feelings of knowing for normatively easier items. Subjects who had received base-rate information during the judgment state had greater feeling-of-knowing accuracy than subjects who did not receive base-rate information. However, even the predictions from subjects who received base-rate information were not significantly more accurate for predicting subsequent recognition than were the predictions derived from normative information alone.

Adult↗

PubMed1978

When does a response error become a judgmental bias? Commentary on "Judged Frequency of Lethal Events".

The study of Lichtenstein, Slovic, Fischhoff, Layman, and Combs reports several types of errors in subjects' frequency judgments of lethal events. These errors are interpreted as reflecting the operation of two types of judgment biases. In this research, the objective or actual frequency of lethal events served as a standard of comparison; any deviation from this standard was defined as a bias. Thus, the research strategy used is apparently modeled after that of a psychophysicist using illusions to study basic perceptual processes. There is one key difference, however. In the case of illusions, the subject is directly exposed to the physical stimulus object. In the present study, however, subjects were never exposed to actual stimuli. Since subjects were asked to make judgments about things they had not directly experienced, it is not surprising that they would be inaccurate. But unlike the study of illusions, such inaccuracies have not been shown to have any necessary connection to psychological mechanisms. Therefore, it seems somewhat tenuous to offer psychological interpretations of judgmental biases when the origins of those biases have not yet been identified.

Female↗

PubMed1979

Surgical decision making. The reliability of clinical judgment.

Elective surgery second opinion programs are predicted on strict acceptance of the accuracy of the consultant's surgical judgment. The reliability and reproducibility of clinical judgment, therefore, become basic to the effectiveness of such programs. This aspect, however, has received little attention. We report a randomized and controlled survey of surgical specialists which defines agreement/disagreement patterns in surgical decision-making for seven elective surgical procedures. For each disease process, four case histories, including at least one control, were developed by specialty panels of physicians. The case summaries described fictional patients who were seeking professional consultation. The histories were mailed to a random sample of Board-certified specialists from the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The response rate was approximately 80% for all five specialties. The respondents were asked to indicate whether they would (Yes) or would not (No) perform the surgical procedure in question. Factual knowledge was not sought, but instead the application of that knowledge and experience to decide on the need for surgical intervention. By comparing the responses for each case history, the agreement/disagreement patterns of inter-observer surgical judgment were determined. Analysis of the data revealed a marked divergence of opinion concerning the need for surgery. The significant point of this study is that surgical judgment differs to a major degree from one surgeon to the next. In a second-opinion program the number of consultants needed to provide a reliable clinical decision probably exceeds the number who are logistically available and that the patient would be willing to visit. Surgical decision-making is a semi-exact scientific process, and it is unreasonable to expect exact answers to clinical problems.

Certification↗

PubMed1978

Priority setting in quality assurance: reliability of staff judgments in medical institutions.

A structured procedure using the judgments of a representative group of local providers for establishing priorities for quality assurance activity in diverse medical institutions was tested for reliability. Two independent matched teams of phy sicians, nurses, administrators, and other staff in eight separate medical facilities generated 320 topics which encompassed areas where quality assurance efforts would have either considerable or little impact in terms of improving health outcomes within reasonable costs. Concordance of judgment between teams in each facility was determined by analyzing the similarity of topics content, the agreement in scaling the health impact of similar topics generated by both teams independently, and the agreement by one team in scaling the health impact of topics generated by the other team. The findings revealed 44 per cent content agreement on topics independently generated, 93 per cent agreement on dichotomous scaling of similar topics, and 87 per cent agreement on five-point scaling of similar topics. Concordance of judgment by one team in scaling the other team's topics was highly significant (p less than .001). Preliminary analysis of topic content and scaling agreement among different facilities indicated low agreement both on the content areas and on the health impact of similar topics. It is concluded that the judgments of local providers in identifying cost-effective quality assurance priorities is highly relaible in the medical institutions studied.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

PubMed1975

Judgment error in category vs magnitude scales.

The effects of a variety of experimental conditions on the judgments (length of lines) of 16 normal and 16 mentally retarded observers were examined using category and magnitude scaling techniques. Using error and variability of judgment as criteria for measuring response bias, for normal subjects knowledge about the stimulus range, whether learned or provided, had as much to do with resulting judgments as the type of scale used. Judgment error of the retarded group was significantly greater than the normal group and appeared to be related to their limited ability to assign categories or proportions to the simuli used.

Adult↗

PubMed1977

Relationship of field-dependence--independence to posture and judgment of time duration.

Relationships between 84 field-dependent subjects and 84 field-independent subjects, posture, and judgment of duration of time were examined. An analysis of variance yielded no significant difference between the two groups of subjects in the judgment of a 40-sec. interval while in the standing, sitting or horizontal postures or in the comparison of the three postures. Mean judgments of durations became larger from standing to sitting to horizontal postures and over trials for the three postures. It was suggested that the lengthening of the judgment of the 40-sec. interval could be related to a decrease in kinesthetic stimulation with a resultant increase in muscular relaxation which led to a decrease in vigilance.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1976

Empathy and pseudo-empathy: the affective judgments of first- and third-graders.

Eighty male and female first- and third-grader Ss were presented one of two brief videotaped social interaction episodes. Half of the Ss viewed an unambiguous tape in which a target character's affective response was congruent with the situational context in which he operated. The remaining Ss viewed a similar, but ambiguous tape in which the nonverbal affective response of the target character was incongruent with situational demands. Ss' responses were scored on the basis of their judgments of the target character's affective state and facial expression, and the degree of relative certainty with which they made their affective judgments. No differences were predicted or found in any of the empathic responses of first- and third-graders to the unambiguous tape. The two age groups studied did, however, differ significantly in their responses to the ambiguous tape. As anticipated, the first-grade Ss employed a highly centered inference strategy and based their judgments on only one of the available incongruous cues. The older Ss, by contrast, recognized the incongruities present and expressed little confidence in their ability to infer the true affect state of the target character.

Affect↗

PubMed1978

Moral judgment in retarded and nonretarded school age children.

The moral judgment of 135 normal, educable retarded, and trainable retarded boys and girls (ages 6-10, 11-13, and 14-16) was individually assessed to determine the significance of chronological age and IQ on moral development. The results indicated significant differences in mean normal judgment between the groups and each age level. The findings were interpreted as substantiating Piaget's stage theory of moral development and suggesting that within the retarded population, level of intellectual ability is also significantly related to moral judgment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1979

Agreement measurement and the judgment process.

This paper reviews the rationale for correcting for chance agreement beween two raters. It is suggested that under certain conditions correction for chance agreement is both unnecessary and inappropriate. When a chance correction is indicated, the chosen measure should be one that can be shown to be logically in accord with the two judges' method of determining each case's disposition. Two agreement measures, kappa (K) and Maxwell's Random Error Coefficient of Agreement (RE), are described in common terms and are then compared in terms of their assumptions about the judgment process. The plausibility of K's assumptions are challenged, and K's use is discouraged on the grounds that judgment table data are not treated in a way compatible with the process by which the table was constructed during the judgment process itself. Use of Maxwell's RE is recommended under conditions of equal proportions in the disagreement cells.

Humans↗

PubMed1975

Complexity, extremity, and affect in male and female judgments.

Two studies were conducted to elucidate aspects of the interpersonal judement process as it is applied to and by males and females. Measurement of judgments by means of the Role Construct Repertory Test allowed consideration of cognitive complexity scores, as well as the use of extreme ratings and a total affective rating. Consistent findings from both studies suggest that males and females differ in their use of extreme scores and total affective ratings, but not in complexity. Characteristics of the stimulus person affect each of the three dependent measures. Interrelationships among the three judgmental measures provide information about the methodological and conceptual interplay of various factors in interpersonal judgment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1978

Possible role of transient and sustained visual mechanisms in the determination of similarity judgments.

Two studies examined the role played by transient and sustained visual mechanisms in the determination of similarity judgments produced in response to pairs of geometrical stimuli. In two experiments, subjects were trained to attend to two dimensions of a set of stimuli and to assign similarity ratings with respect to those two dimensions only. An INDSCAL multidimensional scaling analysis of the subsequent similarity ratings showed that subjects emphasized global blob, or low spatial frequency-dependent, dimensions of the stimuli when they were presented for brief durations (20 msec.), irrespective of the dimensions to which the subjects and had been trained to attend. This finding suggested that low spatial frequency selective transient mechanisms dominated the perceptual processes which underlie the similarity judgments. When the stimulus duration was raised to 50 msec. so that sustained mechanisms could also make a signficicant contribution to the perceptual processes underlying the similarity judgments, subjects emphasized only those dimensions on which they had been trained. The implications of the present findings for the concepts of selective attention and automatic activation were discussed.

Attention↗

PubMed1979

Role of familiar size in spatial judgments under natural viewing conditions.

The purpose of the present experiment was to examine the role of familiar size in judgments of size and egocentric distance under natural (non-reduced) viewing conditions. Independent groups (ns = 14) judged normal and large off-size chairs and control objects presented at a distance of 25.6 m. Subjects also judged the size of unfamiliar objects (adjacent stimuli) attached to the chairs and stakes. The results indicate that the effects of familiar size are specific to spatial judgments of the familiar object itself since judgments of the adjacent stimuli were unaffected by familiar size.

Cues↗

PubMed1979

Temporal and intensitive factors in comparative judgments of tactile space.

Temporal imbalances between the successive stimulation of pairs of loci on each forearm altered judgments of the equality of the spatial extents between sets of loci. The spatial judgments became increasingly inaccurate as the temporal imbalance was increased, i.e., the Tau effect. Changes in stimulus intensity also influenced the dependency of spatial judgments on temporal factors. The data suggest that concomitant variations of spatial, temporal, and intensitive components of a vibrotactile stimulus "package" can produce systematic perceptual effects of potential significance in the design of vibrotactile sensory substitution systems.

Electric Stimulation↗

PubMed1975

Intentionality, degree of damage, and moral judgments.

153 first graders were given Piagetian moral judgment problems with a new simplified methodology as well as the usual story-pair paradigm. The new methodology involved making quantitative judgments about single stories and examined the influence of level of intentionality and degree of damage upon absolute punishment ratings. Contrary to results obtained with a story-pair methodology, it was found that with single stories even 6-year-old children responded to the level of intention in the stories as well as the quantity and quality of damage involved. This suggested that Piaget's methodology may be forcing children to employ a simplifying strategy while under other conditions they are able to perform the mental operations necessary to make complex moral judgments.

Child↗

PubMed1992

[A functional explanation of normative prescriptive-evaluative judgments and the concept of "evolutionary ethics"].

Neodarwinian ethology, today above all represented by sociobiology, is conceived of by responsible exponents as a descriptive and explanatory theory that cannot include any normative declarations. Still other, indeed notable, authors belonging to the discipline in question, either underhand or frankly employ prescriptive or evaluative judgments, or they claim (what is not an insight of natural science) that it is impossible to provide a rational foundation for prescriptive or evaluative judgments. (Michael Ruse and Edward O. Wilson even assert the latter without relinquishing the former.) Several functional explanations of normative validity claims advanced by Michael Ruse, Edward O. Wilson, Donald T. Campbell, Florian von Schilcher and Neil Tennant are designed to show that prescriptive or evaluative judgments cannot be justified. The reasonableness of this move is, however, dubious, because it implies strategies of raising oneself into a privileged status or of rendering the position of oneself immune from criticism by shifting it among the objects of the theory. Then Wilson's concept of 'evolutionary ethics' is thoroughly--and critically--analyzed. The suspicion that Wilson's fallacies in the transition from biological facts to moral norms are of exemplary nature is finally examined on the basis of tenets advanced by Herbert Spencer, Wolfgang Wickler, and Hans Mohr.

Bioethics↗

PubMed1977

Teaching clinical judgment in periodontics.

Clinical judgment is a complex process that is difficult to develop. It is the essence of the health professional, yet most dental curricula do not emphasize the learning of the judgmental process. In this paper the judgmental process is analyzed into three components: input, mediation, and output. Following the analysis, suggestions for using these components are presented in four instructional phases: the introductory phase, the initial guidance phase, the application phase, and the feedback phase. While the illustrations used are drawn from periodontics, the principles are generalizable to the teaching of all clinical disciplines.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed1979

The influence of clinical judgment on the rate of referral from a school vision screening program.

It has been observed that black preschool children low income families have a higher than average rate of referral from a school vision screening program. One potential contributing factor results from the fact that examiners often modified the referral criteria based on their clinical judgment. This study was designed to investigate the influence of the application of clinical judgment on the proportion of referrals as a function of ethnicity and socioeconomic income level. The results suggest that modifying the referral criteria based on clinical judgment does not significantly influence the proportion of referrals based on ethnicity or socioeconomic income level.

Black or African American↗