This study explores a de-bias function for a decision support systems (DSS) that is designed to help a user avoid confirmation bias by increasing the user's learning opportunities. Grounded upon the theory of mental models, the use of DSS is viewed as involving a learning process, whereby a user is directed to build mental models so as to reduce…

Tested the assumptions that the structural features of vocational schemas affect vocational information processing and career self-efficacy. Results indicated that effective vocational information processing was facilitated by well-integrated systems that processed information along fewer dimensions. The importance of schematic organization on the…

Two traditions of studying teachers and teaching have emerged over the last 50 years: the psychometric and the phenomenological. Procedures developing from personal construct theory are in the phenomenological tradition and provide the means for student teacher and supervisor/teacher educator to discuss all aspects of teaching in a counseling…

Examines cognitions relevant to credit card decision making in college-aged participants (N=304). Assesses measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral alternatives toward acquiring a credit card. Identifies a multivariate model predicting college student financial development of the attitudes and behavioral tendencies of acquiring a new card.…

Reports on the field of experimental economics and speculates about why we value fairness and cooperation over the seemingly more rational selfishness. Illustrates a typical decision making situation using the Ultimatum game. (DDR)

Tested Cooper and Fazio's dissonance model. Subjects made arguments that were consistent or inconsistent with their attitudes and were provided feedback about consequences. Attitude-change effect only occurred when behaviors were both inconsistent and resulted in aversive consequences. Results suggest that cognitive inconsistency may be necessary…

A study examined the application and availability of clinical and biomedical knowledge in the clinical reasoning of physicians as well as possible mechanisms responsible for changes in the organization of clinical and biomedical knowledge in the development from novice to expert. Subjects were 28 students (10 second year, 8 fourth year, and 10…

The paper presents the thesis that experienced physicians, while diagnosing routine cases, are operating upon knowledge structures that are distinctively different from those of novice physicians and students. In the course of their medical training, students develop rich, elaborated causal networks, explaining the causes and consequences of…

Argumentation courses, which emphasize the theories of argumentation, and debate courses, which teach competitive debate, can effectively teach critical thinking, training students to see situations from a variety of perspectives and then to evaluate those perspectives for their relative merit. William G. Perry maps out nine stages by which…

A study investigated the known phenomenon of "intermediate effect" in which medical students with an intermediate amount of knowledge and experience demonstrate higher amounts of recall of the text of a medical case than either experienced clinicians or novices. In this study the amount of activation of prior knowledge was controlled by…

In the late 1960s and early 1970s a considerable amount of research was conducted on methods for authoring and structuring instructional materials by researchers who did not, at that time, have access to the existing delivery systems necessary to fully implement their ideas. One of these methodologies is Structural Communications, developed by…

Examines how women administrators make decisions in a higher education setting. Studies female administrators' ways of knowing and how these affect their decisions and leadership. The following four bases of knowledge are discussed: (1) received; (2) subjective; (3) procedural; and (4) constructed. Examines the need for reflective practice. (JS)

Presents findings of a study involving 34 undergraduates, examining how exposure to different belief structures might change an individual's belief structure. Suggests that, when the individual is high in public self-conscious, their belief structures will change after encountering different belief structures. Implies that public posturing can…

A study examined and tested the knowledge sources individuals tap in the planning process and the process of plan modification. It is expected that contrary to plan-based theories, individuals will fail to remediate flaws in their plans if given the chance to develop a plan to pursue the same goal. It is also expected that differences exist…

In two studies, the role of biomedical knowledge in the diagnosis of clinical cases by physicians and medical students was explored. Experiment 1 demonstrated a decrease in the use of biomedical knowledge with increasing expertise. This result appeared to be at variance with some findings reported in some but not all of the literature. In…