Non‐analytical models of clinical reasoning: the role of experience

OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to summarise the evidence supporting the role of experience-based, non-analytic reasoning (NAR) or pattern recognition as a central feature of expert medical diagnosis. METHODS: The authors examine a series of studies, primarily from their own research programme at McMaster University, that demonstrate that expert and novice diagnostic problem solving is based, to some degree, on similarity to a prior specific …