Attribution Processes and Attribution Errors (8B) Practice Test

At a hospital, a nurse notices that a new coworker, Sam, speaks briefly with patients during morning rounds. The nurse tells another coworker that Sam is “cold” and “doesn’t care about patients.” Later, the charge nurse mentions that Sam was assigned extra rooms due to a staffing shortage and was instructed to prioritize time-sensitive medication checks. Sam later tells a friend that the shift felt rushed because of the shortage and because several patients needed urgent lab draws.

What attributional reasoning is most likely being used by the nurse who describes Sam as “cold”?

Two classmates, Devin and Noor, are assigned to the same group project. During the presentation, Devin forgets a key point and pauses for several seconds. Afterward, Noor tells another classmate that Devin “is not confident” and “doesn’t prepare.” Devin later says he paused because the classroom projector briefly froze on the wrong slide and he was trying to match his notes to the corrected slide order. Noor also mentions that she felt nervous during the presentation but says her own mistakes were due to “bad timing” and “the room being too hot.”

Which attribution error is most exemplified by Noor’s interpretation of Devin’s pause?