MRCPsych on the Go: Revision Essentials

13. How We Think and Decide: Heuristics, Algorithms and Cognitive Bias

Aalap Asurlekar Season 1 Episode 13

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0:00 | 11:17

Why do smart people make bad decisions? The answer often comes down to the mental shortcuts our brains rely on without us even realising it.

In this episode, we explore how we reason and solve problems, and where we go wrong. We cover deductive and inductive reasoning, the difference between algorithms and heuristics, and the cognitive biases that lead to systematic errors in thinking.

These ideas are directly relevant to clinical reasoning and diagnostic decision making in psychiatry, where bias can have real consequences for patients.

Ideal for MRCPsych Part A revision, psychology students and anyone curious about how the mind makes decisions. Aligned with the Royal College of Psychiatrists MRCPsych Part A syllabus, paragraph 1.1.5.

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