Ditto! I'm teaching a senior seminar (Risk and Society) and we just finished reading the Gigerenzer et al (2007) monograph on "Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics". It is an excellent read by the way - one of the most clearly written academic pieces I've read in a long time. I also highly recommend the piece for anyone who is interested in the many forces that cause us to be unable to make medical decisions in an informed way.
Here is the NY Times article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/health/17cancer.html?_r=1&ref=us Marie **************************************************** Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Department Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology Kaufman 168, Dickinson College Carlisle, PA 17013, office (717) 245-1562, fax (717) 245-1971 Office hours: Mon/Thur 3-4, Tues 10:30-11:30 http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/psych/helwegm **************************************************** -----Original Message----- From: John Kulig [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:17 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] teachable moment What a coincidence, I have to share this. I had a test scheduled today in Measurement on Utility, making decisions about test use after cost/benefit analysis. On CNN this morning was the news that US Preventive Services Task Force is NOT recommending routine mammogram testing for women under 50 (unless otherwise high risk). This is based on new data and a cost/benefit analysis. There are benefits to under 50 testing(prevent 1 cancer death for every 1904 women tested), but also costs in terms of extra testing, psychological stress, biopsies, and the false positive rate. So I HAD to get it on the exam. I photocopied 3 articles on the recommendations (two from NYTimes, one from Washington Post) and tacked on a bonus question at the end - asking them to read the articles and see if the decision to reduce testing was made in a manner described in the test. -------------------------- John W. Kulig Professor of Psychology Plymouth State University Plymouth NH 03264 -------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
