The difficulty with experience: Does practice increase susceptibility to premature closure?

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Abstract
T study was performed to test this conclusion. Methods: Physician participants were shown a series of case histories and asked to judge the probability of a pair of diagnoses. The order in which features were presented was manipulated across participants and the probabilities compared to determine the impact of information order. Two groups of participants were recruited, 1 older than and 1 younger than 60 years. Results: The probability assigned to a diagnosis tended to be greater when features consistent with that diagnosis preceded those consistent with an alternative than when the same features followed those consistent with the alternative. Older participants revealed a greater primacy effect than less experienced participants across 4 experimental conditions. Discussion: Physicians with greater experience appear to weigh their first impressions more heavily than those with less experience. Educators should design instructional activities that account for experience-specific cognitive tendencies. Email: evakw@mcmaster.ca Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Program for Educational Research and Development, MDCL 3522, McMaster University, 1200 Main St. W., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 3Z5 Grant sponsor: Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education. Copyright © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company...