title: Use of the competing-hypotheses heuristic to reduce 'pseudodiagnosticity'.
abstract: A quasiexperimental research design involving a nonequivalent control group was used to examine the efficacy of a brief educational intervention in teaching medical students to select optimal diagnostic data consistent with the competing-hypotheses heuristic and Bayes' theorem when solving clinical problems. There was no significant difference between intervention (n = 119) and control (n = 89) groups in performance at baseline, but the intervention group performed significantly better (p less than .001) than the control group after training. The results suggest that some problem-solving skills, such as learning to use the competing-hypotheses heuristic, can be enhanced or learned independent of the acquisition of content knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Postgraduate Medicine and Health Professions Education, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor.
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Gruppen
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Billi
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D003662:Decision Theory; D003933:Diagnosis; D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008824:Michigan; D011340:Problem Solving