How cognitive psychology changed the face of medical education research

Abstract

In this article, the contributions of cognitive psychology to research and development of medical education are assessed. The cognitive psychology of learning consists of activation of prior knowledge while processing new information and elaboration on the resulting new knowledge to facilitate storing in long-term memory. This process is limited by the size of working memory. Six interventions based on cognitive theory that facilitate learning and expertise development are discussed: (1) Fostering self-explanation, (2) elaborative discussion, and (3) distributed practice; (4) help with decreasing cognitive load, (5) promoting retrieval practice, and (6) supporting interleaving practice. These interventions contribute in different measure to various instructional methods in use in medical education: problem-based learning, team-based learning, worked examples, mixed practice, serial-cue presentation, and deliberate reflection. The article concludes that systematic research into the applicability of these ideas to the practice of medical education presently is limited and should be intensified.

Health professions education scholarship: The emergence, current status, and future of a discipline in its own right

“…Situated in close vicinity to the practice of health care seems to have been a critical condition for these units to flourish, combined with the insights of the social sciences. 66 HPE research should be best conducted by scholars with a mindset to understand what it is to think, act, and feel like a physician, nurse, or other health professional, in other words to possess, or at least sympathize, with professional identities in health care. 67 The growth of health professions education scholarship activities and interest since mid-20th century (journals, publications, conferences, HPE research, and development centers, scholars) has out-paced similar developments in other higher education domains.…”

“…Rather than in faculties or departments of social or educational sciences, schools in the health professions have established and hosted such units and should host them. Situated in close vicinity to the practice of health care seems to have been a critical condition for these units to flourish, combined with the insights of the social sciences 66 . HPE research should be best conducted by scholars with a mindset to understand what it is to think, act, and feel like a physician, nurse, or other health professional, in other words to possess, or at least sympathize, with professional identities in health care 67 …”

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“…Third, the active participation, positive mood (as reflected by the students' satisfaction survey), motivation and reward associated with the game have a positive effect on the learning experience [25][26][27][28][29][30], notably through the involvement of mesocorticolimbic pathways [31,32]. Another interesting aspect of the Neurospeed is interleaving: students quickly switch between different types of neurological syndromes throughout the game, and this learning technique has been recognized as effective in medical education [33]. Regarding the conceptual framework of the Neurospeed teaching, several learning theories can be invoked.…”

A Novel Deep Framework for English Communication Based on Educational Psychology Perspective

“…Cognitive ability is people's ability to know about and pick up the characteristics and laws of communication. Operational ability is the ability to carry out language conversion and transmission in an effective way (13)(14)(15). The constituent elements of English communication ability are shown in Figure 3.…”