ACTUARIAL, NAIVE CLINICAL, AND SOPHISTICATED CLINICAL PREDICTION OF PATHOLOGY FROM FIGURE DRAWINGS.

87 PAIRS OF FIGURE DRAWINGS, 37 BY NORMALS AND 50 BY PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS, WERE GIVEN TO 27 CLINICAL STUDENTS AND 6 EXPERIENCED CLINICIANS, ALONG WITH A COMPLETE ACCOUNT OF THE PERTINENT RESEARCH FINDINGS OF HILER AND NESVIG. SS WERE ASKED TO JUDGE WHETHER THE DRAWINGS WERE NORMAL OR PATHOLOGICAL. THE STUDENTS WERE SUPERIOR TO THE CLINICIANS IN THE TASK, AND 23% OF THEM WERE SUPERIOR TO AN ACTUARIAL FORMULA THAT HAD BEEN CONSTRUCTED PREVIOUSLY. DATA WERE INTERPRETED TO SUPPORT THE RELATIVE SUPERIORITY OF SOPHISTICATED OVER NAIVE CLINICAL PREDICTION AND THE POSSIBILITY THAT IN SOME CIRCUMSTANCE IT MAY BE SUPERIOR TO ACTUARIAL FORMULAS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)