TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Never Too Young To Second-Guess Decisions

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2007

At 3 and 4 years old, a child seems to define the concept of living "in the moment." She may crumple when a parent leaves or hurl a plaything when it frustrates, all with little evidence of self-awareness.

Developmental psychologists have long thought that before age 5, a child is largely unable to reflect upon her thoughts, feelings or memories — a skill that is critical to higher-order learning (not to mention self-control).

A new study, however, finds preschoolers are capable of such introspection.

University of California, Davis, psychologist Simona Ghetti and student Kristen Lyons had 3- and 4 -year-olds look at pictures of familiar objects, including monkeys, with features removed, making them harder to recognize. The child would choose between two photographs, either of a child looking confident or doubtful, and pick the picture that best reflected how they felt about their answer.

Even the 3 -year-olds were more likely to choose the photo of a confident child when right and the doubtful child when wrong, reported Ghetti at a psychology meeting. They were aware of their uncertainty — a skill Homo sapiens appear to share with just a few other creatures, including dolphins and monkeys.

Los Angeles Times

DR, YRU Abbreviating?

Abbreviations are widely used in medicine, but a new study has found just how dangerous they can be: Five percent of 30,000 medication errors — some fatal — reported to the national Medmarx database between 2004 and 2006 involved shorthand.

Among the abbreviations more commonly associated with errors were "U," which means units and was sometimes mistaken for a zero, and "QD," which means daily but was mistaken for "QOD," meaning every other day. The Chicago-based Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, recommends that doctors jettison some such abbreviations and instead write out the full word.

In a study published in the September issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, Rutgers University pharmacist Luigi Brunetti and his colleagues quantified the frequency of abbreviation-related errors.

The researchers recommended that hospitals expand rules, suggesting that "enforcement is required to ensure that abbreviations are not used." They note that annual surveys have found that compliance with the commission's "Do Not Use" list of abbreviations dropped from 75 percent in 2004 to 64 percent in 2006.

The Washington Post

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT