Diagnostic Classification Decisions as a Function of Referral Information

Abstract

ticipated in a computer-simulated decision-making experience designed to ascertain the extent to which referral information biased classification decisions. Subjects were randomly assigned to 16 different conditions that varied on the basis of the referred child’s sex, socio-economic status, physical attractiveness, and nature of referral problem. Subjects accessed test data, all of which reported performance in the normal range. Only the nature of the referral problem was found to be influential in the simulated decisions. A referred child was more likely to be diagnosed as emotionally dis-turbed when the referral statement of the problem was listed as behavioral rather tha