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American Journal of Pharmaceutical... Mar 2019To review the importance of and barriers to critical thinking and provide evidence-based recommendations to encourage development of these skills in pharmacy students.... (Review)
Review
To review the importance of and barriers to critical thinking and provide evidence-based recommendations to encourage development of these skills in pharmacy students. Critical thinking (CT) is one of the most desired skills of a pharmacy graduate but there are many challenges to students thinking critically including their own perceptions, poor metacognitive skills, a fixed mindset, a non-automated skillset, heuristics, biases and the fact that thinking is effortful. Though difficult, developing CT skills is not impossible. Research and practice suggest several factors that can improve one's thinking ability: a thoughtful learning environment, seeing or hearing what is done to executive cognitive operations that students can emulate, and guidance and support of their efforts until they can perform on their own. Teaching CT requires coordination at the curricular level and further to the more discrete level of a lesson and a course. Instructor training is imperative to this process since this intervention has been found to be the most effective in developing CT skills.
Topics: Curriculum; Decision Making; Education, Pharmacy; Humans; Problem Solving; Problem-Based Learning; Professional Competence; Students, Pharmacy; Thinking
PubMed: 30962645
DOI: 10.5688/ajpe7033 -
International Journal of Environmental... Jul 2022(1) There has been growing attention among healthcare researchers on new and innovative methodologies for improving patient experience. This study reviewed the... (Review)
Review
(1) There has been growing attention among healthcare researchers on new and innovative methodologies for improving patient experience. This study reviewed the approaches and methods used in current patient experience research by applying the perspective of design thinking to discuss practical methodologies for a patient-centered approach and creative problem-solving. (2) A scoping review was performed to identify research trends in healthcare. A four-stage design thinking process ("Discover", "Define", "Develop", and "Deliver") and five themes ("User focus", "Problem-framing", "Visualization", "Experimentation", and "Diversity"), characterizing the concept, were used for the analysis framework. (3) After reviewing 67 studies, the current studies show that the iterative process of divergent and convergent thinking is lacking, which is a core concept of design thinking, and it is necessary to employ an integrative methodology to actively apply collaborative, multidisciplinary, and creative attributes for a specific and tangible solution. (4) For creative problem-solving to improve patient experience, we should explore the possibilities of various solutions by an iterative process of divergent and convergent thinking. A concrete and visualized solution should be sought through active user interactions from various fields. For this, a specific methodology that allows users to collaborate by applying the integrative viewpoint of design thinking should be introduced.
Topics: Creativity; Delivery of Health Care; Humans; Patient Outcome Assessment; Problem Solving; Thinking
PubMed: 35954517
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19159163 -
Cognitive Science Apr 2021Cognitive reflection is the tendency to override an intuitive response so as to engage in the reflection necessary to derive a correct response. Here, we examine the...
Cognitive reflection is the tendency to override an intuitive response so as to engage in the reflection necessary to derive a correct response. Here, we examine the emergence of cognitive reflection in a culture that values nonanalytic thinking styles, Chinese culture. We administered a child-friendly version of the cognitive reflection test, the CRT-D, to 130 adults and 111 school-age children in China and compared performance on the CRT-D to several measures of rational thinking (belief bias syllogisms, base rate sensitivity, denominator neglect, and other-side thinking) and normative thinking dispositions (actively open-minded thinking and need for cognition). The CRT-D was a significant predictor of rational thinking and normative thinking dispositions in both children and adults, as previously found in American samples. Adults' performance on the CRT-D correlated with their performance on the original CRT, and children's performance on the CRT-D predicted rational thinking and normative thinking dispositions even after adjusting for age. These results demonstrate that cognitive reflection, rational thinking, and normative thinking dispositions converge even in a culture that emphasizes holistic, nonanalytic reasoning.
Topics: Adult; China; Cognition; Humans; Neuropsychological Tests; Problem Solving; Thinking
PubMed: 33873237
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12966 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Dec 2022Humans possess the remarkable capacity to imagine possible worlds and to demarcate possibilities and impossibilities in reasoning. We can think about what might happen...
Humans possess the remarkable capacity to imagine possible worlds and to demarcate possibilities and impossibilities in reasoning. We can think about what might happen in the future and consider what the present would look like had the past turned out differently. We reason about cause and effect, weigh up alternative courses of action and regret our mistakes. In this theme issue, leading experts from across the life sciences provide ground-breaking insights into the proximate questions of how thinking about possibilities works and develops, and the ultimate questions of its adaptive functions and evolutionary history. Together, the contributions delineate neurophysiological, cognitive and social mechanisms involved in mentally simulating possible states of reality; and point to conceptual changes in the understanding of singular and multiple possibilities during human development. The contributions also demonstrate how thinking about possibilities can augment learning, decision-making and judgement, and highlight aspects of the capacity that appear to be shared with non-human animals and aspects that may be uniquely human. Throughout the issue, it becomes clear that many developmental milestones achieved during childhood, and many of the most significant evolutionary and cultural triumphs of the human species, can only be understood with reference to increasingly complex reasoning about possibilities. This article is part of the theme issue 'Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny'.
Topics: Animals; Thinking; Phylogeny; Judgment; Creativity; Hominidae
PubMed: 36314156
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0333 -
The Journal of the American College of... 2009It is human nature to overestimate how rational we are, both in general and even when we are trying to be. Such irrationality is not random, and the search for and...
It is human nature to overestimate how rational we are, both in general and even when we are trying to be. Such irrationality is not random, and the search for and explanation of patterns of fuzzy thinking is the basis for a new academic discipline known as behavioral economics. Examples are given of some of the best understood of our foibles, including prospect theory, framing, anchoring, salience, confirmation bias, superstition, and ownership. Humans have two cognitive systems: one conscious, deliberate, slow, and rational; the other fast, pattern-based, emotionally tinged, and intuitive. Each is subject to its own kind of error. In the case of rational thought, we tend to exaggerate our capacity; for intuition, we fail to train it or recognize contexts where it is inappropriate. Humans are especially poor at estimating probabilities, or even understanding what they are. It is a common human failing to reason backwards from random outcomes that are favorable to beliefs about our power to predict the future. Five suggestions are offered for thinking within our means.
Topics: Attitude; Choice Behavior; Cognition; Community Participation; Emotions; Forecasting; Humans; Intuition; Judgment; Ownership; Pattern Recognition, Physiological; Prejudice; Probability; Rationalization; Risk-Taking; Superstitions; Thinking
PubMed: 20415136
DOI: No ID Found -
Medical Science Monitor : International... Jan 2011Obtaining and critically appraising evidence is clearly not enough to make better decisions in clinical care. The evidence should be linked to the clinician's expertise,... (Review)
Review
Obtaining and critically appraising evidence is clearly not enough to make better decisions in clinical care. The evidence should be linked to the clinician's expertise, the patient's individual circumstances (including values and preferences), and clinical context and settings. We propose critical thinking and decision-making as the tools for making that link. Critical thinking is also called for in medical research and medical writing, especially where pre-canned methodologies are not enough. It is also involved in our exchanges of ideas at floor rounds, grand rounds and case discussions; our communications with patients and lay stakeholders in health care; and our writing of research papers, grant applications and grant reviews. Critical thinking is a learned process which benefits from teaching and guided practice like any discipline in health sciences. Training in critical thinking should be a part or a pre-requisite of the medical curriculum.
Topics: Communication; Decision Making; Education, Medical; Evidence-Based Medicine; Research Design; Thinking
PubMed: 21169920
DOI: 10.12659/msm.881321 -
Advances in Physiology Education Dec 2023Application-of-knowledge skills are highly valued in clinical medicine, as indicated by recent changes to licensure and entrance exams for nursing and physician programs...
Application-of-knowledge skills are highly valued in clinical medicine, as indicated by recent changes to licensure and entrance exams for nursing and physician programs (i.e., the NCLEX and MCAT). Such emphasis should be both welcomed and supported by approaches to teaching human anatomy and physiology that emphasize critical thinking skills built upon logic, reasoning, and judgment. The argument for development of these skills is not simply philosophical. Rather, such emphasis is strongly supported by a 2016 Johns Hopkins study (Makary MA, Daniel M. 353: i2139, 2016) that estimates that medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in the United States! Active learning techniques known to require critical thinking skills are often supplemental to standard expository lecturing or other avenues of imparting content knowledge (reading, videos, etc.). We propose that all content dissemination can and should provide for the development of critical thinking skills, preparing students for active learning techniques requiring this ability. This can be accomplished by establishing an intellectual framework for understanding the adaptive benefits of anatomical or physiological traits. Additionally, explanations conveying the causality of mechanistic sequences result in learning content within intuitive functional groups rather than as isolated phenomena, the latter often accomplished mainly through memorization as opposed to real understanding. Here, we provide a template for lecture development based upon these principles as well as a specific example from human anatomy and physiology. Our hope is to provide a model for how students should think about all physiology, making comprehensive coverage of content (an impossible task!) much less important. Critical thinking skills are essential to the effective performance of many careers, particularly those involving health care. To aid the development of these skills in physiology, the formation of logical cognitive frameworks needs to be supported via instruction that emphasizes the context of physiological functions (the "why") as well as the causality of their sequential actions. Within such frameworks, students become capable of cognitive reasoning required to reach intuitive conclusions after system perturbations.
Topics: Humans; Thinking; Problem-Based Learning; Problem Solving; Judgment; Curriculum
PubMed: 37732369
DOI: 10.1152/advan.00131.2023 -
Brain Injury May 2020The current study examined how creative divergent thinking (i.e., the ability to produce varied and original solutions to a problem) is impacted by moderate-to-severe... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
The current study examined how creative divergent thinking (i.e., the ability to produce varied and original solutions to a problem) is impacted by moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).
RESEARCH DESIGN
Descriptive, observational.
METHODS AND PROCEDURES
We administered two tasks of divergent thinking, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) and the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), as well as a battery of neuropsychological tests and psychosocial variables (assessing memory and learning, processing speed, set shifting and psychological distress), to 29 individuals with TBI and 20 demographically-matched healthy comparison participants.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS
Individuals with TBI performed similarly to healthy individuals on both tests of creative thinking, although they were impaired on the neuropsychological tasks. Moreover, there was no significant correlation between performance on the ATTA and performance on neuropsychological tests, but within the TBI group AUT performance and memory were significantly and positively associated.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings reveal that divergent thinking, as measured by the ATTA and AUT, might be spared following moderate-to-severe TBI. These findings further our understanding of the higher-level cognitive sequelae of TBI and suggest that divergent thinking might be leveraged during treatment planning.
Topics: Adult; Brain Injuries, Traumatic; Cognition; Creativity; Humans; Neuropsychological Tests; Thinking
PubMed: 32343615
DOI: 10.1080/02699052.2020.1753810 -
American Journal of Public Health Mar 2015Innovation is the engine of scientific progress, yet we do not train public health students to think creatively. I present the key concepts within an evidence-based...
Innovation is the engine of scientific progress, yet we do not train public health students to think creatively. I present the key concepts within an evidence-based method currently taught at the University of Texas. Habitual thought patterns involve deeply held framed expectations. Finding alternatives generates originality. Because frame breaking is difficult, a series of innovation heuristics and tools are offered including enhancing observation, using analogies, changing point of view, juggling opposites, broadening perspective, reversal, reorganization and combination, and getting the most from groups. Gaining cognitive attributes such as nonjudgment, willingness to question, mindfulness, and plasticity is also emphasized. Students completing the class demonstrate substantial increases on a standardized test of idea fluency and originality, more joyful attitudes toward science, and more pluralistic approaches.
Topics: Creativity; Education, Public Health Professional; Humans; Observation; Schools, Public Health; Teaching; Texas
PubMed: 25706005
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302365 -
Psychological Research Mar 2023The role of executive functioning in creative thinking is under debate. Some authors suggested that increased inhibitory control, a component of executive functioning,...
The role of executive functioning in creative thinking is under debate. Some authors suggested that increased inhibitory control, a component of executive functioning, is detrimental to creative solutions, whereas others argued that executive functions are central to creative problem-solving, thus questioning Guilford's classical distinction between divergent and convergent thinking. Executive functions decline with age. In this study, we investigated the contributions of executive functioning and its age-related decline and divergent thinking to creative problem-solving. To this aim, we divided our sample of sixty healthy adults into two age groups of young adults (20-26 years) and elderly (60-70 years) and we assessed their creative problem-solving abilities (using the compound remote associate problems) as well as other potential cognitive predictors of creative problem-solving (i.e., impulsivity, divergent thinking, verbal working memory, and decision-making style). A linear regression model revealed that the ability to solve problems creatively is negatively predicted by older age and impulsivity, while positively predicted by divergent thinking and verbal working memory. These findings reveal a combined contribution of executive functions and divergent thinking to creative problem-solving, suggesting that both convergent and divergent processes should be considered in interventions to contrast age-related decline.
Topics: Humans; Young Adult; Aged; Adult; Executive Function; Problem Solving; Creativity; Memory, Short-Term; Impulsive Behavior
PubMed: 35366100
DOI: 10.1007/s00426-022-01678-8