BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH POLICY COMMITTEE REPORT WAS PUBLISHED AS A SUPPLEMENT TO THE AUGUSTJOURNAL OF MEDICAL EDUCATION. A REPRINT IS ENCLOSED. REQUESTS FOR ADDITIONAL COPIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO THISOFFICE. -COPIES ARE BEING SENT TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND THE KEY MEMBERS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. CALLING UPON-YOUR SENATORSAND CONGRESSMEN TO TELL THE STORY OF THE ROLE. OF MEDICAL SCHOOLS IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND HEALTH CARE IS IMPORTANT.I STRONGLY URGE THAT YOU MAKE AN 411 APPOINTMENT TO SEE YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES WHILE YOU ARE IN WASHINGTON FOR THE COUNCIL MEETINGON OCTOBER 29. UPON REQUEST WE CAN SUPPLY THE NAMES OF APPOINTMENT SECRETARIES AND PHONE NUMBERS OF YOUR SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN. APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE ACTED WITH EXTRAORDINARY ALACRITY THIS YEAR. THE-NIH APPROPRIATION WAS INCREASED BY 242 MILLION DOLLARSOVER 1971, REPRESENTING A 142 MILLION DOLLAR INCREASE OVER. THE ADMINISTRATION BUDGET, THE BLUE SHEET ASCRIBES APPROPRIATIONS OUTCOME TO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COALITION FOR HEALTH FUNDING UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF JOHN A. D. COOPER.

The Association of American Medical Colleges

/pdf/enhancing-our-lives-with-immersive-virtual-reality-496gj7y20r.pdf

Enhancing Our Lives with Immersive Virtual Reality

THE ninth annual report of the president and the treasurer of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, for the year ending September 30, 1914, shows a total endowment of 2,850,000l., a surplus of 249,000l., an annual income of 149,200l., and an annual expenditure of 143,200l. Of this 9400l. was spent in administration, 9400l. in educational inquiry, and 126,800l. in retiring allowances and pensions. During the year twenty-nine retiring allowances and fifteen widows pensions were granted, the average grant being 329l. 10s., The total number of allowances now in force is 332, the total number of widows' pensions 100, the general average grant being 319l. The total number of allowances granted since the beginning of the foundation is 595, the total expenditure for this purpose being 710,200l.

/pdf/the-carnegie-foundation-for-the-advancement-of-teaching-4bul5i3ivn.pdf

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The hippocampal formation has long been suggested to underlie both memory formation and spatial navigation. We discuss how neural mechanisms identified in spatial navigation research operate across information domains to support a wide spectrum of cognitive functions. In our framework, place and grid cell population codes provide a representational format to map variable dimensions of cognitive spaces. This highly dynamic mapping system enables rapid reorganization of codes through remapping between orthogonal representations across behavioral contexts, yielding a multitude of stable cognitive spaces at different resolutions and hierarchical levels. Action sequences result in trajectories through cognitive space, which can be simulated via sequential coding in the hippocampus. In this way, the spatial representational format of the hippocampal formation has the capacity to support flexible cognition and behavior.

/pdf/navigating-cognition-spatial-codes-for-human-thinking-4l9th9mgpc.pdf

Navigating cognition: Spatial codes for human thinking

Much research in the last two decades has demonstrated that human responses deviate from the performance deemed normative according to various models of decision making and rational judgment (e.g., the basic axioms of utility theory). This gap between the normative and the descriptive can be interpreted as indicating systematic irrationalities in human cognition. However, four alternative interpretations preserve the assumption that human behavior and cognition is largely rational. These posit that the gap is due to (1) performance errors, (2) computational limitations, (3) the wrong norm being applied by the experimenter, and (4) a different construal of the task by the subject. In the debates about the viability of these alternative explanations, attention has been focused too narrowly on the model response. In a series of experiments involving most of the classic tasks in the heuristics and biases literature, we have examined the implications of individual differences in performance for each of the four explanations of the normative/descriptive gap. Performance errors are a minor factor in the gap; computational limitations underlie non-normative responding on several tasks, particularly those that involve some type of cognitive decontextualization. Unexpected patterns of covariance can suggest when the wrong norm is being applied to a task or when an alternative construal of the task should be considered appropriate.

Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate?-Open Peer Commentary-Differences, games, and pluralism

Wormholes in virtual space: From cognitive maps to cognitive graphs.

Introduction
Several studies have shown that workplace violence in the emergency department (ED) is common. Residents may be among the most vulnerable staff, as they have the least experience with these volatile encounters. The goal for this study was to quantify and describe acts of violence against emergency medicine (EM) residents by patients and visitors and to identify perceived barriers to safety.

/pdf/workplace-violence-and-harassment-against-emergency-medicine-3t7xe0b1sw.pdf

Workplace Violence and Harassment Against Emergency Medicine Residents.

D espite being reported as one of the most important factors in the residency recruitment process by program directors and applicants, ‘‘fit’’ is rarely deconstructed or explained. To the contrary, fit is often used in lieu of supporting evidence to convey gestalt impressions. Here, we describe common ways fit is interpreted and assessed, discuss 2 risks of using the term fit in recruitment, and conclude with strategies to mitigate these risks.

The F Word: How “Fit” Threatens the Validity of Resident Recruitment

Implementation of Entrustable Professional Activities into a General Surgery Residency.

Abstract Background Medical error is a leading cause of death nationwide. While systems issues have been closely investigated as a contributor to error, little is known about the cognitive factors that contribute to diagnostic error in an emergency department (ED) environment. Methods Eight months of patient revisits within 72 h where patients were admitted on their second visit were examined. Fifty-two cases of confirmed error were identified and classified using a modified version of the Australian Patient Safety Foundation classification system for medical errors by a group of trained physicians. Results Faulty information processing was the most frequently identified category of error (45% of cases), followed by faulty verification (31%). Faulty knowledge (6%) and faulty information gathering (18%) occurred relatively infrequently. “Misjudging the salience of a finding” and “premature closure” were the individual errors that occurred most frequently (13%). Conclusions Despite the complex nature of diagnostic reasoning, cognitive errors of information processing appear to occur at higher rates than other errors, and in a similar pattern to an internal medicine service despite a different clinical environment. Further research is needed to elucidate why these errors occur and how to mitigate them.

Benjamin H. Schnapp

Papers

Wormholes in virtual space: From cognitive maps to cognitive graphs.

Workplace Violence and Harassment Against Emergency Medicine Residents.

The F Word: How “Fit” Threatens the Validity of Resident Recruitment

Implementation of Entrustable Professional Activities into a General Surgery Residency.

Cognitive error in an academic emergency department.