Objectives
To evaluate student impressions of learning anatomy with mixed-reality
and compare long-term information retention of female breast anatomy between
students who learned with a mixed-reality supplement and their classmates who
dissected cadavers.
Methods
In Part 1, 38
first-year medical student volunteers, randomly divided into two groups,
completed a mixed-reality module and cadaveric dissection on the female breast
in a counterbalanced design. Participants also completed post-quizzes and
surveys. Part 2 was a non-randomized controlled trial, 8-months after
completing Part 1 and 6-months after a final exam on this content. The
performance of twenty-two Part 1 participants and 129 of their classmates, who
only dissected, was compared on a delayed post-quiz. Wilcoxon signed-rank test,
Mann-Whitney U test, and 95% confidence intervals were used to analyze the
data.
Results
In Part 1, the Wilcoxon signed-rank
test determined that participants expressed significantly more positive responses
to mixed-reality and found mixed-reality easier for learning and teamwork. In
Part 2, the Mann-Whitney U test found mixed-reality participants scored
significantly higher on a delayed-post quiz than their classmates who only
dissected (U = 928, p < .009).
Conclusions
This
study suggests that medical students may prefer mixed-reality and that it may
be an effective modality for learning breast anatomy while facilitating
teamwork. Results also suggest that supplementing cadaveric dissection with
mixed-reality may improve long-term retention for at least one anatomical
topic. It is recommended that similar studies evaluate a larger sample and
additional anatomical regions to determine the generalizability of these
findings.
Transforming long-term conflicts into peaceful intergroup relations is one of the most difficult challenges for humanity. Such meaningful social changes are often driven by young people. But do young people living in contexts of long-term conflicts believe that change is even possible? In a series of six studies (Ntotal = 119,671) over two decades and across two unrelated intractable conflicts in Israel/Palestine and Cyprus, we found that younger (compared to older) generations from both respective rival groups have less hope for peace, and consequently less conciliatory attitudes. We also show that this gradual improvement of peace-promoting emotions and attitudes with increasing age can be experimentally accelerated in young people through a virtual reality-based aging simulation. These findings provide a new perspective on the fundamental question of why long-term conflicts are so difficult to resolve and highlight the importance of instilling hope in young generations to advance peace processes.
Transforming long-term conflicts into peaceful intergroup relations is one of the most difficult challenges for humanity. Such meaningful social changes are often driven by young people. But do young people living in contexts of long-term conflicts believe that change is even possible? In a series of six studies (Ntotal = 119,671) over two decades and across two unrelated intractable conflicts in Israel/Palestine and Cyprus, we found that younger (compared to older) generations from both respective rival groups have less hope for peace, and consequently less conciliatory attitudes. We also show that this gradual improvement of peace-promoting emotions and attitudes with increasing age can be experimentally accelerated in young people through a virtual reality-based aging simulation. These findings provide a new perspective on the fundamental question of why long-term conflicts are so difficult to resolve and highlight the importance of instilling hope in young generations to advance peace processes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.