Cognitive Science in Medicine: Biomedical Modeling

ABSTRACT Cognitive science has much to offer medicine. As the synthesis of cognitive psychology, theoretical linguistics, and computer science, the field provides novel models of biomedical knowledge. These promising efforts can provide mechanisms for improving medical reasoning and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, opportunities to study judgment are personally compelling, given that we have all made mistakes. This volume offers both empirical and theoretical reports on the field from the perspective of medical information sciences.The ten chapters address the difference between idealized models of problem solving and actual clinical practice. The first motivates the reader by listing various reasons for studying cognitive science, most notably the pragmatic argument of improving communication, education, and computer modeling. The second chapter invokes the issues of estrogen replacement therapy to highlight the discrepancy between intuitive decision making and formal decision analysis. Chapter 3 explores the tension between basic scientific knowledge and clinical knowledge (and why the