ABSTRACT

For a long period of time, the psychological study of medical expertise failed to produce results consistent with data of many other areas of expertise. Although, subsequent research, using more and more refined experimental methods, revealed many aspects of clinical problem solving where experts are definitely in advantage, there are still too many questions. The aim of this paper is review some controversial issues, and to formulate a few answers where is possible, focusing mainly on which and what kind of cognitive structures and mechanisms mediate expert performance. These concerns the patterns of experts' and novices' reasoning, the management of contextual, biomedical and clinical knowledge in typical, or contrary, complicated and uncertain situations. In short: the reasons of their successes and failures.

KEYWORDS: medical problem solving, forward reasoning, backward reasoning, encapsulated knowledge, illness scripts.