Theme 7 - Critical Thinking

Question 1

what is an issue?

Answer 1

a particular topic or even a question

Question 2

What is a claim?

Answer 2

an answer or opinion and must be true or false. An opposition to a claim is whatever is needed to negate the claim

Question 3

give an example of a claim

Answer 3

abortion is always morally acceptable

Question 4

what are arguments?

Answer 4

claims with additional claims acting as a reason, they do not require two people and a simply used to settle an issue, just because you may accept a claim, doesnt mean you should accept the argument

Question 5

what are premises?

Answer 5

-claims that serve as a reason and so creates an argument
-claims that oppose the initial claim

Question 6

give an example argument you may get in optometry

Answer 6

the optimal clinical care and diagnosis of a patient in optometry e.g. patient X should receive this type of treatment

Question 7

what can cause bias?

Answer 7

-a disproportionate weight in favour or against a particular idea or thing
-many people strongly follow certain beliefs or agree with specific claims despite the weak scientific evidence

Question 8

what is confirmation bias

Answer 8

favouring evidence that supports your pre-existing beliefs while ignoring evidence that doesn’t

Question 9

give 5 features that can create confirmation bias

Answer 9

-focussing all the attention on the favoured hypothesis only
-looking only or primarily for positive cases
-overweighting positive confirmatory evidence e.g. astrology, cold reading
-seeing what one is looking for e.g. if you’re a hypochondriac then when you think you’re ill, all normal body signs may be interpreted as a confirmation of illness
-the primary effect where evidence collected early carries more weight than that collected later

Question 10

why may people experience confirmation bias?

Answer 10

-challenge avoidance (dont wanna find out theyre wrong)
-reinforcement seeking (wanting to find out theyre right

Question 11

What is survivorship bias?

Answer 11

where a visible successful subgroup is mistaken for an entire group and hence you are actually observing a non-random sample as they are the only ones that have survived

Question 12

give an example where you could get a survivorship bias

Answer 12

assessing smoking as a risk factor of AMD

Question 13

what is selection bias? give an example

Answer 13

any unintended pressure applied to the selection of study participants which means a bias sample that doesnt reflect the pop. is chosen e.g. participants who can read a specific language

Question 14

how can selection and survivorship bias be avoided?

Answer 14

-minimise loss of participants during a follow-up
-keep a record to determine any differences in a follow-up
-use incidence rather than prevalence
-use already available hospital data sets

Question 15

what is regression toward the mean>

Answer 15

where if one sample of a random variable is extreme, the next sampling of the same random variable is likely to be closer to its mean

Question 16

why can regression to the mean be problematic?

Answer 16

it can mislead researchers to believe that an intervention is the cause of an observed change when in reality its due to chance so is a reason controls are so important

Question 17

what is a fallacy?

Answer 17

faulty reasoning that undermines the validity of an argument

Question 18

what is fallacy of composition and give an example

Answer 18

when an error in assuming what is true for members of a group is also true for a group as a whole e.g. vision in my left eye is poor therefore i am in poor health

Question 19

what is fallacy of division and give an example

Answer 19

an error in assuming that what is true of the whole group must also be true for some of its members e.g. i am in good health therefore my eye is in good health

Question 20

What is ambiguity?

Answer 20

using language or linguistic structures with more than one meaning to mislead or misrepresent the truth

Question 21

Name 8 fallacies

Answer 21

-fallacy of composition and division
-ambiguity
-ad hominem (degrees of credibility)
-strawman fallacy
-interested party and conflicts of interest
-appeal to authority/ experts
-the bandwagon (appeals to popularity / tradition/ common practise)
-red herring fallacy
-false dichotomy fallacy

Question 22

what is the ad hominem fallacy? Give an example

Answer 22

-attacking a person’s character to undermine their argument instead of countering it logically
-‘i am the optometrist and you are the patient hence i am right and you are wrong’

Question 23

what is strawman fallacy? Give an example

Answer 23

arguing against a false or distorted version of someone’s argument e.g. you don’t want to increase funding for childeren’s school meals so I guess you want children to starve

Question 24

give three examples of conflicts of interest in optometry

Answer 24

1. 20% of optoms felt pressure to sell glasses, CLs, and other optional products due to loyalty to the patient vs clinic and its focus on sales
2. 36% of optoms felt they were given patients beyond their skill by the clinic
3. many not given enough time to adequately assess the patient

Question 25

what is the appeal to authority fallacy?

Answer 25

assuming a claim is true because an authority says so

Question 26

what is ‘the bandwagon’ fallacy? Give an example

Answer 26

assuming a claim is true because many or most others believe it is e.g. watching tv is bad for your eyes

Question 27

what is the red herring fallacy?

Answer 27

being distracted or misled from the real issue by focussing on something only partially related

Question 28

give an example of a red herring fallacy that happened

Answer 28

a patient with 20:200 VA, no neurological problems, suggested to have keratoconus by fellow optom and on examination, a bilateral swollen disk was found and scan showed astrocytoma in frontal lobe, so the keratoconus info could have nearly lead the person doing the examination down the wrong path

Question 29

what is a false dichotomy fallacy?

Answer 29

when only two options/ sides are presented when in reality there are more complexities, think black or white when there’s a spectrum of shades of grey