Looking at Chase and Simon's study: Experienced and non-experienced dynamic psychotherapists' memory of clinical information

Abstract

Studied the relation of clinical expertise, recognition of clinical symptoms, and diagnostic ability in 32 psychologists and psychotherapists in Portugal. Ss were given 6 min to review 2 typical clinical or 2 atypical clinical cases. A Theoretical Perspectives and Professional Activity Questionnaire (A. S. dos Santos et al, 1999) was used. Ss were then asked to diagnose the patients and recognize clinical information from the case histories. The results indicate that experts accurately recognize information seen previously in the typical case histories, but non-experts are more accurate in recognizing information from atypical case histories. The results also indicate that recognition memory is better for diagnoses of psychoses in both typical and atypical clinical cases. The results are discussed in relation to the schema theory. The Portuguese text of the questionnaire is provided.