title: What are judgment skills in health literacy? A psycho-cognitive perspective of judgment and decision-making research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this review is to summarize current research relating to psychological processes involved in judgment and decision-making (JDM) and identify which processes can be incorporated and used in the construct of health literacy (HL) in order to enrich its conceptualization and to provide more information about people's preferences.
  
  
  METHODS
  The literature review was aimed at identifying comprehensive research in the field; therefore appropriate databases were searched for English language articles dated from 1998 to 2015.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Several psychological processes have been found to be constituents of JDM and potentially incorporated in the definition of HL: cognition, self-regulation, emotion, reasoning-thinking, and social perception.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HL research can benefit from this JDM literature overview, first, by elaborating on the idea that judgment is multidimensional and constituted by several specific processes, and second, by using the results to implement the definition of "judgment skills". Moreover, this review can favor the development of new instruments that can measure HL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Future researchers in HL should work together with researchers in psychological sciences not only to investigate the processes behind JDM in-depth but also to create effective opportunities to improve HL in all patients, to promote good decisions, and orient patients' preferences in all health contexts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Riva
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Antonietti
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Iannello
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy ; Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy ; Applied Research Division for Cognitive and Psychological Science, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pravettoni
keywords: cognitive factors; decision-making; health literacy; judgment; psychological processes; skills