title: An empirical evaluation of the performance of antibody identification tasks.
abstract: Four empirical studies were conducted for better understanding of the nature of problem-solving activities by medical technologists and medical technology students when performing antibody identification tasks. The results indicated the importance of strategies that ensure the collection of converging evidence, as these strategies protect against the fallibility of commonly used heuristics and against errors due to simple slips. The results also indicate that not only do students make significant numbers of errors, but so do practicing technologists. In one of the studies covering a 1-year period, for instance, a group of 16 technologists made a total of 41 errors in 1057 cases. On the basis of these findings, several alternatives are proposed to reduce errors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Svirbely
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rudmann
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Strohm
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kennedy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards*; D001789:Blood Group Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D001788:Blood Grouping and Crossmatching; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007158:Immunologic Techniques; D007518:Isoantibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D007983:Lewis Blood Group Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science / Q000193:education; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001789:Blood Group Antigens; D007518:Isoantibodies; D007983:Lewis Blood Group Antigens; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System