Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicología del Principado de Asturias).
We currently publish four issues per year, which accounts for some 100 articles annually. We admit work from both the basic and applied research fields, and from all areas of Psychology, all manuscripts being anonymously reviewed prior to publication.
Psicothema, 2008. Vol. Vol. 20 (nº 2). 188-192
Antonio Godoy Ávila, Aurora Gavino Lázaro y Mª Teresa Anarte Ortiz
Universidad de Málaga
Esta investigación pretende comprobar si los estudiantes de Psicología, cuando comprueban hipótesis clínicas, siguen estrategias de razonamiento confirmatorias o refutadoras. Participaron 206 estudiantes de Psicología divididos en cuatro grupos. Un grupo recibió la información sobre la probabilidad de que la hipótesis fuera correcta expresada mediante etiquetas verbales, y otro mediante expresiones numéricas. Un grupo adicional recibió información de que afinar en el diagnóstico era clínicamente importante. En un último grupo las pruebas diagnósticas permitían aumentar la seguridad en la hipótesis. Los resultados han mostrado una utilización parcial de estrategias confirmatorias, ya que no se recogió información confirmatoria pero sí se evitó recoger información refutadora. Cuando la información aumenta la seguridad en la hipótesis, es más probable que se utilicen estrategias confirmatorias. Ni el aumento de la importancia de la tarea ni la expresión numérica de la probabilidad de que la hipótesis sea correcta parecen afectar la estrategia seguida.
Strategies of clinical hypothesis testing. This research examines whether Psychology students, when they test clinical hypotheses, follow either confirmatory or disconfirmatory reasoning strategies. Two hundred and six psychology students, divided in four groups, participated. One group received information about the probability that the hypothesis was correct by means of verbal labels, and another group, by means of numerical expressions. An additional group received the information that getting a precise diagnosis was clinically important. In a last group, diagnostic tests allowed them to increase certainty about the hypothesis. Results show a partial use of confirmatory strategies because, although participants did not seek confirming information, they indeed avoided collecting disconfirming information. When the information increased certainty about the hypothesis, confirmatory strategies became more likely. Neither the increase in the task importance nor the numerical expression of the likelihood that the hypothesis was correct seemed to affect the testing strategy used.
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