Episode 66: How Do We Make Decisions?

This week's article, "Judgment and decision making in clinical and return-to-sports decision making: a narrative review," dives deep into decision making frameworks and theories for how we make decisions. While this is written to the specific context of sports rehab and return to sport decision making, the decision making process is a critical aspect of all areas of rehab whether we are deciding if an athlete is ready to return to their sport or if a stroke victim is safe to return home. This article discusses bounded rationality, heuristics, and the dual process model of decision making. Bounded rationality is a theory that explains how humans make decisions, while heuristics and the dual process model describe how humans reduce cognitive load when making decisions. The authors note "the complexity and variability of real-world situations often necessitate the consideration and adaptation of multiple decision-making models or approaches." We can become better decision makers with experience, decreasing cognitive load via minimizing distractions and fatigue, use external decision aids, group decision making, and minimizing time pressure, among other things. For students and new grads, it is particularly important to spend time thinking through decisions, considering alternative options/theories (i.e. playing Devil's Advocate), and finding supportive environments for your growth as a thinker and clinician. The abstract can be found here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-024-02054-9 As always, if you enjoy what you hear, be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast platform and on Instagram @readingrehabpod. If you have any article recommendations be sure to send them our way!