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04/28/26

Premature closure underlies bias in medical diagnosis in students: a randomised controlled experiment.

Al Essa, Awad; Schmidt, Henk G; Mamede, Silvia; Knežević, Karla; Zwaan, Laura; Magzoub, Mohi. Med Educ.

Collection Topics
Cognition and Decision Making Health Professional Education
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Summary

Affected cognition is known to bias information and contribute to diagnostic error. This study examines how introducing distracting, believable information influences diagnostic accuracy in UAE medical students. When such information was provided early in the decision process, students made more diagnostic errors and processed information less thoroughly, indicating premature closure. The results find reduced processing time only when biased information appeared early in the decision making, highlighting its impact on error rates.

Read the paper
Al Essa A, Schmidt HG, Mamede S, et al. Premature closure underlies bias in medical diagnosis in students: a randomised controlled experiment. Med Educ. 2026;60(10):1102-1109.