Diagnosing Crime and Diagnosing Disease-II: Visual Pattern Perception and Diagnostic Accuracy

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Medical Diagnosis
• Forensic Science

Background:

• General cognitive processes are susceptible to bias in clinical and forensic fields.
• Visual processing is crucial for medical diagnosis and eyewitness identification (EI).
• Contextual factors influence decision-making and recall in experts and witnesses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare cognitive biases in clinical visual tasks and eyewitness identification.
• To explore how interdisciplinary comparisons can reduce errors.
• To suggest remedies for cognitive bias applicable to both domains.

Main Methods:

• Review of clinical tasks dependent on visual processing.
• Comparison with eyewitness identification (EI) literature.
• Analysis of the constructive nature of visual processing and contextual influences.

Main Results:

• Common cognitive factors underlie strengths and weaknesses in clinical and forensic visual tasks.
• Forensic science's error reduction strategies, like controlling irrelevant information, can aid medical diagnosis.
• Contextual factors significantly impact decision-making and recall.

Conclusions:

• Cognitive biases present similar challenges in clinical and forensic visual tasks.
• Strategies to control contextual factors, such as an agnostic primary reading, can mitigate bias.
• Interdisciplinary insights can generalize solutions for cognitive bias across domains.