Jessecae K. Marsh

Texas Tech University

What Does that Symptom Mean? Classifying Ambiguous Information in the Clinical Setting

Interpreting ambiguous symptoms

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Patient has history of depression

Patient has history of high cholesterol

Interpreting ambiguous symptoms

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Patient has history of high cholesterol

Patient has history of depression

Interpreting ambiguous symptoms

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Patient has history of high cholesterol

Patient has history of depression

Interpreting ambiguous symptoms

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Drinks to

excess

? ?

Causal theories in everyday causal reasoning

Marsh & Ahn (2009)

Influence of context in clinicians’ reasoning

With Andres De Los Reyes

Two Studies

Causal theories in everyday causal reasoning

Marsh & Ahn (2009)

Influence of context in clinicians’ reasoning

With Andres De Los Reyes

Two Studies

Reasoning about causal events

Effect No Effect

Cause

No CauseCheng (1997);

Collins & Shanks (2002); Jenkins & Ward (1965); Rescorla & Wagner (1972)

€

CE

€

C E

€

C E

€

CE

Reasoning about causal events

= ?

How do causal theories help classify ambiguous events?

€

=C

€

=C

Participants saw easily classified data intermixed with ambiguous data

Experiment Overview

€

C E

€

CE

Tall bacteria cause protein presence

€

C E

€

CE

Tall bacteria cause protein presence

€

C E

€

CE

Tall bacteria cause protein presence

Tall with protein

€

C E

€

CE

Tall bacteria cause protein presence

Tall with protein

No

Tall bacteria cause protein presence

€

C E

Tall with protein

€

CE

Short with no protein

No

Participants saw easily classified data intermixed with ambiguous data

Asked to estimate how many trials they saw of the four information types

Categorizing Ambiguous Events

Present

Absent

18 2

2 18

20 0

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Categorizing Ambiguous Events

Results

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Observed trial frequencies

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

€

A

Present

Absent

18 2

2 18

20 0

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Categorizing Ambiguous Events

Results

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Observed trial frequencies Reported frequencies

Present

Absent

Tall

Short

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

€

A

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

Present

Absent

18 2

2 18

20 0

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Categorizing Ambiguous Events

Results

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Observed trial frequencies

Present

Absent

Tall 27.5 3.4

Short 3.3 20.7

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Reported frequencies

Middle height counted as tall

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

€

A

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

Present

Absent

18 2

2 18

0 20

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Categorizing Ambiguous Events

Results

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Observed trial frequencies

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

€

A

Present

Absent

18 2

2 18

0 20

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Categorizing Ambiguous Events

Results

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Observed trial frequencies

Present

Absent

Tall 19.3 3.4

Short 3.7 28.8

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Reported frequencies

Middle height counted as short€

C €

C

€

A

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

€

E

€

E

Categorizing Ambiguous Events

Results

Present

Absent

Tall 19.3 3.4

Short 3.7 28.8

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Reported frequencies

Middle height counted as short

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

Present

Absent

Tall 27.5 3.4

Short 3.3 20.7

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

Reported frequencies

Middle height counted as tall

€

E

€

E

€

C €

C

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

No

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 Categorized with tall

Categorized with short

Categorizing Ambiguous Events

Perceptual similarity judgments

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Bacteria height Protein present?

Yes

Pretest Ambiguous conditions

Summary of Marsh & Ahn (2009)

A hypothesis can be used to assimilate ambiguous information into a current theory

Summary of Marsh & Ahn (2009)

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Drinks to

excess

AnxietyDrinks

to excess

Summary of Marsh & Ahn (2009)

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Drinks to

excess

AnxietyDrinks

to excess

Summary of Marsh & Ahn (2009)

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Drinks to

excess

AnxietyDrinks

to excess

People will use causal theories to interpret ambiguous information in lay causal reasoning settings.

Marsh & Ahn (2009)

Clinicians will use non-diagnostic, contextual information to interpret diagnostic information

With Andres De Los Reyes

Two Studies

In collaboration with

Andres De Los Reyes, Ph.D.

(University of Maryland)

How does the context in which diagnostic features present affect clinicians diagnostic judgments?

The context of clinical symptoms

stays out at night run away from home

overnight truant from school stolen without confronting

a victim bullies others initiates fights lies or "cons" others broken into someone else's

house, building, or car

destroyed others' property (other than by fire setting)

stolen while confronting a victim

used a weapon fire setting cruel to people cruel to animals forced someone into

sexual activity

Symptoms of Conduct Disorder

Have clinicians rate criterial symptoms of CD in high association and low association context.

Evaluate whether:context affects evaluation of criterial

symptoms in general.context affects features differently.

General Study Overview

We found that clinicians were affected by context.High context received higher ratings

than low. Not all features were affected equally

Some features seem to be impervious to context.

Preliminary Results

Summary of Clinicians’ Context

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Drinks to excessJogs on a regular basisEnjoys outdoor sports

Extremely motivated in life

Summary of Clinicians’ Context

Chest pain and

constriction

Panic attack Heart attack

Drinks to excessJogs on a regular basisEnjoys outdoor sports

Extremely motivated in life

Thank you.