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Ovid APA PsycInfo Search Filters

How was the Cognitive Biases filter developed?

Cognitive biases

We tend to think of "implicit biases" as the catch-all phrase, but it is only one aspect of "cognitive biases". Cognitive biases is a very broad concept and includes implicit biases, stereotypes, "isms", and much more.

The comprehensive search in the following box was developed using The Cognitive Bias Codex (jpg) to capture various types of biases. The terms were added in alphabetical order to the search string using the appropriate syntax for each database to which it has been adapted. 

The following article is a scoping review that looks at methods for reducing cognitive biases in a specific healthcare profession. This scoping review did NOT use the search filter but it also helped inform the search filter:

  • Shlonsky A, Featherston R, Galvin KL, Vogel AP, Granger CL, Lewis C, Luong ML, Downie LE. Interventions to Mitigate Cognitive Biases in the Decision Making of Eye Care Professionals: A Systematic Review. Optom Vis Sci. 2019 Nov;96(11):818-824. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000001445. PMID: 31664015 (Requires Pitt login)

Cognitive/implicit biases search string

Search filter for all cognitive biases (Updated 26 November 2024)

"aged (attitudes toward)"/ or "homosexuality (attitudes toward)"/ or ageism/ or attentional bias/ or cognitive bias/ or confirmation bias/ or experimenter bias/ or experimenter expectations/ or halo effect/ or hindsight bias/ or implicit bias/ or interpretive bias/ or prejudice/ or racial bias/ or sex discrimination/ or sexism/ or social class bias/ or stereotyped attitudes/ or stranger reactions/ or systemic racism/ or ((age adj1 (bias or biases)) or Ageism or (Anchoring adj3 (bias or biases)) or (ascertainment adj1 (bias or biases)) or (attentional adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((attribution or attributional) adj1 (error or errors)) or (Availability adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((base adj1 rate) and (rate adj1 neglect)) or (belief adj1 (bias or biases or perseverance)) or (blind adj1 spot) or ((bounded adj rationality) and rationality) or (cognitive adj1 (bias or biases)) or (coherence adj1 (bias or biases)) or (confirmation adj1 (bias or biases)) or (conjunction adj1 fallacy) or (conservatism adj1 (bias or biases)) or (consistency adj1 (bias or biases or effect or effects)) or (diagnostic adj1 (momentum or overshadowing)) or (dread adj1 risk) or (ego adj1 (bias or biases)) or (emotional adj1 contagion) or ((examiner* or experimenter*) adj1 (bias or biases)) or (expectancy adj1 (bias or biases or effect or effects)) or ((faulty adj1 causal) and (causal adj1 model)) or (framing* adj1 effect) or (framing* adj1 effects) or (gambler* adj1 fallacy) or (gender adj2 (bias or biases)) or (halo adj1 effect) or (halo adj1 effects) or (hidden adj1 (bias or biases)) or homophobia or homophobic or (implicit adj1 (bias or biases or prejudice or prejudices or stereotype or stereotypes)) or (Inappropriate adj1 selectivity) or (inferential adj1 (bias or biases or error or errors)) or (label?ing adj1 (bias or biases)) or (loss adj1 aversion) or (multiple adj1 alternatives) or (narrative adj1 (fallacies or fallacy)) or (omission adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((optimism or optimistic) adj1 (bias or biases)) or (order adj1 (bias or biases or effect or effects)) or (ostrich adj1 effect) or (outcome adj1 (bias or biases)) or overconfidence or ((post adj1 hoc) and (hoc adj1 fallacy)) or prejudice or ((premature adj1 closure) and (bias or biases)) or (primacy adj1 (effect or effects)) or (race adj1 (bias or biased or biases)) or (racial adj1 (bias or biases)) or Racism or (recency adj1 (bias or biases or effect or effects)) or (representative adj1 (heuristic or heuristics)) or (representativeness adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((retrospection or retrospective) adj1 (bias or biases)) or (search adj1 satisfying) or (sex adj2 (bias or biases)) or Sexism or (socioeconomic adj1 (bias or biases)) or stereotyp* or (subconscious* adj1 (bias or biased or biases)) or (sunk adj1 (cost or costs)) or (technological adj1 imperative) or (thinking adj1 (bias or biases)) or (unconscious adj1 (bias or biases)) or (unpacking adj1 principle) or (visceral adj1 (bias or biases)) or (vocation adj1 (bias or biases)) or (weight adj1 (bias or biased or biases)) or (Weight adj1 Prejudice*) or ((status adj1 quo) and (quo adj1 (bias or biases))) or ((worst adj1 case) and (case adj1 scenario)) or Xenophobia).ti,ab,id,mh.

Example searches

Example searches

Racial bias incorporating cognitive biases with a focus on Blacks/African Americans

The search string below has removed non-relevant terms from the broader "cognitive biases" filter above by testing each pair of terms in PubMed in combination with terms for Blacks/African Americans. The search was then translated into Ovid Medline syntax, then Ovid APA PsycInfo syntax. The search removes terms related to ageism, sexism, weight prejudice, homosexuality.

(Blacks/ or minority groups/ or "racial and ethnic groups"/ or ("Black or African American" or Minority Groups or "Race Factors" or Racial Groups).mh. or (((African or Black) adj (American* or ancestry)) or Blacks or minorities or minority or race or racial).ti,ab,id.) and (cognitive bias/ or implicit bias/ or Prejudice/ or Racism/ or Systemic Racism/ or (Bias, Implicit or Prejudice or Racism or Stereotyping or Systemic Racism).mh. or ((Anchoring adj3 (bias or biases)) or (ascertainment adj1 (bias or biases)) or (attentional adj1 (bias or biases)) or (attribution* adj1 (error or errors)) or (Availability adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((base adj1 rate) and (rate adj1 neglect)) or (belief adj1 (bias or biases or perseverance)) or (blind adj1 spot) or (cognitive adj1 (bias or biases)) or (coherence adj1 (bias or biases)) or (confirmation adj1 (bias or biases)) or (conjunction adj1 (fallacies or fallacy)) or (conservatism adj1 (bias or biases)) or (consistency adj1 (bias or biases or effect or effects)) or (diagnostic adj1 (momentum or overshadowing)) or (dread adj1 risk) or (ego adj1 (bias or biases)) or (emotional adj1 contagion) or (examiner* adj1 (bias or biases)) or (expectancy adj1 (bias or biases or effect or effects)) or (experimenter* adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((faulty adj1 causal) and (causal adj1 (model or models))) or (framing* adj1 effect) or (framing* adj1 effects) or (gambler* adj1 (fallacies or fallacy)) or (gender adj2 (bias or biases)) or (halo adj1 (effect or effects)) or (hidden adj1 (bias or biases)) or (implicit adj1 (bias or biases or prejudice or prejudices or stereotype or stereotypes)) or (Inappropriate adj1 selectivity) or (inferential adj1 (bias or biases or error or errors)) or (label?ing adj1 (bias or biases)) or (loss adj1 aversion) or (multiple adj1 alternatives) or (narrative adj1 (fallacies or fallacy)) or (omission adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((optimism or optimistic) adj1 (bias or biases)) or (order adj1 (bias or biases or effect or effects)) or (ostrich adj1 effect) or (outcome adj1 (bias or biases)) or overconfidence or ((post adj1 hoc) and (hoc adj1 fallacy)) or (premature adj1 closure) or (primacy adj1 (effect or effects)) or (race adj1 (bias or biased or biases)) or (racial adj1 (bias or biases)) or Racism or (recency adj1 (bias or biases or effect or effects)) or (representative adj1 (heuristic or heuristics)) or (representativeness adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((retrospection or retrospective) adj1 (bias or biases)) or (search adj1 satisfying) or stereotyp* or (subconscious* adj1 (bias or biased or biases)) or (sunk adj1 (cost or costs)) or (technological adj1 imperative) or (thinking adj1 (bias or biases)) or (unconscious adj1 (bias or biases)) or (unpacking adj1 principle) or (visceral adj1 (bias or biases)) or ((status adj1 quo) and (quo adj1 (bias or biases))) or ((worst adj1 case) and (case adj1 scenario))).ti,ab,id.) not ((afghanistan or africa or african or albania or algeria or andorra or angola or anguilla or antarctic or antarctica or antigua or antilles or arab or arabia or argentina or armenia or aruba or asia or atoll or australia or austria or azerbaijan or bahamas or bahrain or Balkan or baltic or bangladesh or barbados or barbuda or belarus or belgium or belize or benin or bermuda or bhutan or bissau or bolivia or bosnia or botswana or brazil or britain or british or brunei or burkina or burundi or caicos or cambodia or cameroon or cartier or cayman or chad or chile or china or christmas or cocos or colombia or comoros or congo or coral or costa or croatia or cuba or curacao or cyprus or czech or czechoslovakia or democratic or denmark or djibouti or dominica or dominican or ecuador or egypt or emirates or equatorial or eritrea or estonia or ethiopia or europa or europe or falkland or faroe or faso or fiji or finland or france or french or futuna or gabon or gambia or gaza or Georgia or germany or ghana or gibraltar or glorioso or greece or grenada or grenadines or guam or guatemala or guernsey or guiana or guinea or guyana or haiti or heard or herzegovina or holy or honduras or hong or howland or hungary or iceland or india or indies or indonesia or iran or iraq or ireland or israel or italy or ivory or jamaica or jan or japan or jarvis or jordan or kazakhstan or keeling or kenya or kingdom or kiribati or kitts or kong or korea or kosovo or kuwait or kyrgyzstan or lanka or laos or latvia or lebanon or leone or lesotho or liberia or libya or liechtenstein or lithuania or lucia or luxembourg or macao or macau or macedonia or madagascar or malawi or malaysia or maldives or mali or malta or marino or martinique or mauritania or mauritius or mayen or mayotte or micronesia or miquelon or moldova or monaco or mongolia or montenegro or montserrat or morocco or mozambique or myanmar or namibia or nauru or navasa or nepal or netherlands or nevis or nicaragua or niger or nigeria or niue or norway or oman or pakistan or palau or palestine or palmyra or panama or papua or paraguay or peoples or peru or pierre or pitcairn or poland or polynesia or portugal or principe or qatar or republic or reunion or romania or russia or rwanda or sahara or salvador or saudi or scandinavia or scotland or senegal or serbia or seychelles or sierra or singapore or slovak or slovakia or slovenia or solomon or somalia or spain or spratly or sri or sudan or surinam or suriname or svalbard or swaziland or sweden or switzerland or syria or taiwan or tajikistan or tanzania or thailand or tibet or timor or tobago or togo or tokelau or tome or tonga or trinidad or tunisia or turkey or turkmenistan or turks or tuvalu or uganda or ukraine or uruguay or ussr or uzbekistan or vanuatu or vatican or venezuela or verde or vietnam or vincent or wales or wallis or yemen or yugoslavia or zambia or zealand or zimbabwe) not (Appalachian Region or Great Lakes Region or Mid-Atlantic Region or Midwestern United States or New England or Northwestern United States or Pacific States or Southeastern United States or Southwestern United States or north america or United States or Alabama or Alaska or Arizona or Arkansas or Baltimore or California or Los Angeles or San Francisco or Colorado or Connecticut or Delaware or District of Columbia or Florida or Georgia or Hawaii or Idaho or Illinois or Chicago or Indiana or Iowa or Kansas or Kentucky or Louisiana or Maine or Maryland or Massachusetts or Boston or Michigan or Minnesota or Mississippi or Missouri or Montana or Nebraska or Nevada or New Hampshire or New Jersey or New Mexico or New Orleans or New York or New York City or North Carolina or North Dakota or Ohio or Oklahoma or Oregon or Pennsylvania or Philadelphia or Rhode Island or South Carolina or South Dakota or Tennessee or Texas or Utah or Vermont or Virginia or Washington or West Virginia or Wisconsin or Wyoming or US)).lo,mh.


Search for interventions/trials

This is NOT a comprehensive search but it will enable you to view a sample of interventions & trials with different populations including patients, healthcare providers, and students.

((Cognitive or implicit) adj2 (Bias* or prejudice* or stereotype*)).ti,ab,kf. and (intervention or trial).ti.

  • NOTE: The above search will require you to log into My Pitt.

Search for systematic/scoping reviews

This is NOT a comprehensive search but it will enable you to view a sample of reviews with different populations including patients, healthcare providers, and students.

((Cognitive or implicit) adj2 (Bias* or prejudice* or stereotype*)).ti,ab,kf. and (systematic or scoping).ti.

  • NOTE: The above search will require you to log into My Pitt.