Visual aids improve diagnostic inferences and metacognitive judgment calibration

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Version: Final published version
Serval ID
serval:BIB_D9046F916A56
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Visual aids improve diagnostic inferences and metacognitive judgment calibration
Journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Author(s)
Garcia-Retamero R., Cookely E., Hoffrage U.
ISSN
1664-1078
Publication state
Published
Issued date
07/2015
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
6
Number
932
Pages
NA
Language
english
Abstract
Visual aids can improve comprehension of risks associated with medical treatments, screenings, and lifestyles. Do visual aids also help decision makers accurately assess their risk comprehension? That is, do visual aids help them become well calibrated? To address these questions, we investigated the benefits of visual aids displaying numerical information and measured accuracy of self-assessment of diagnostic inferences (i.e., metacognitive judgment calibration) controlling for individual differences in numeracy. Participants included 108 patients who made diagnostic inferences about three medical tests on the basis of information about the sensitivity and false-positive rate of the tests and disease prevalence. Half of the patients received the information in numbers without a visual aid, while the other half received numbers along with a grid representing the numerical information. In the numerical condition, many patients-especially those with low numeracy-misinterpreted the predictive value of the tests and profoundly overestimated the accuracy of their inferences. Metacognitive judgment calibration mediated the relationship between numeracy and accuracy of diagnostic inferences. In contrast, in the visual aid condition, patients at all levels of numeracy showed high-levels of inferential accuracy and metacognitive judgment calibration. Results indicate that accurate metacognitive assessment may explain the beneficial effects of visual aids and numeracy-a result that accords with theory suggesting that metacognition is an essential part of risk literacy. We conclude that well-designed risk communications can inform patients about healthrelevant numerical information while helping them assess the quality of their own risk comprehension.
Keywords
visual aids, Bayesian reasoning, natural frequencies, numeracy, risk literacy, medical decision making, diagnostic inferences
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
01/04/2016 16:44
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:58
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