The influence of feedback and diagnostic data on pseudodiagnosticity

Abstract

Pseudodiagnosticity is the tendency of people to select diagnostically worthless data in an opinion revision task and then to make a judgment based on those data. University students were presented four problems in which they selected data and then made a judgment based on those data. Knowledge of results was provided on each trial. Half the subjects were “force-fed” truly diagnostic data. Getting the correct answer virtually guaranteed that subjects repeated the data selection strategy that preceded it. Data selection following an incorrect answer was contingent upon whether the subjects had seen diagnostically relevant data. © 1981, The psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.