1. Jessecae K. Marsh Texas Tech University What Does that Symptom Mean? Classifying Ambiguous Information in the Clinical Setting

2. Interpreting ambiguous symptoms Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Patient has history of depression Patient has history of high cholesterol

3. Interpreting ambiguous symptoms Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Patient has history of high cholesterol Patient has history of depression

4. Interpreting ambiguous symptoms Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Patient has history of high cholesterol Patient has history of depression

5. Interpreting ambiguous symptoms Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Drinks to excess ??

6.  Causal theories in everyday causal reasoning Marsh & Ahn (2009)  Influence of context in clinicians’ reasoning With Andres De Los Reyes Two Studies

7.  Causal theories in everyday causal reasoning Marsh & Ahn (2009)  Influence of context in clinicians’ reasoning With Andres De Los Reyes Two Studies

8. Reasoning about causal events EffectNo Effect Cause No Cause Cheng (1997); Collins & Shanks (2002); Jenkins & Ward (1965); Rescorla & Wagner (1972)

9. Reasoning about causal events = ? How do causal theories help classify ambiguous events?

10. Participants saw easily classified data intermixed with ambiguous data Experiment Overview

11. Tall bacteria cause protein presence

13. Tall with protein

14. Tall bacteria cause protein presence Tall with protein No

15. Tall bacteria cause protein presence Tall with proteinShort with no protein No

16. 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

17. PresentAbsent 182 2 200 Categorizing Ambiguous Events Results Observed trial frequencies

18. PresentAbsent 182 2 200 Categorizing Ambiguous Events Results Observed trial frequenciesReported frequencies PresentAbsent Tall Short

19. PresentAbsent 182 2 200 Categorizing Ambiguous Events Results Observed trial frequencies PresentAbsent Tall27.53.4 Short3.320.7 Reported frequencies Middle height counted as tall

20. PresentAbsent 182 2 020 Categorizing Ambiguous Events Results Observed trial frequencies

21. PresentAbsent 182 2 020 Categorizing Ambiguous Events Results Observed trial frequencies PresentAbsent Tall19.33.4 Short3.728.8 Reported frequencies Middle height counted as short

22. Categorizing Ambiguous Events Results PresentAbsent Tall19.33.4 Short3.728.8 Reported frequencies Middle height counted as short PresentAbsent Tall27.53.4 Short3.320.7 Reported frequencies Middle height counted as tall

23. Categorizing Ambiguous Events Perceptual similarity judgments PretestAmbiguous conditions

24. Summary of Marsh & Ahn (2009)  A hypothesis can be used to assimilate ambiguous information into a current theory

25. Summary of Marsh & Ahn (2009) Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Drinks to excess Anxiety Drinks to excess

26. Summary of Marsh & Ahn (2009) Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Drinks to excess Anxiety Drinks to excess

27. Summary of Marsh & Ahn (2009) Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Drinks to excess Anxiety Drinks to excess

28.  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

29. 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

30.  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

31.  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

32.  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

33. Summary of Clinicians’ Context Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Drinks to excess Jogs on a regular basis Enjoys outdoor sports Extremely motivated in life

34. Summary of Clinicians’ Context Chest pain and constriction Panic attackHeart attack Drinks to excess Jogs on a regular basis Enjoys outdoor sports Extremely motivated in life

35. Thank you.