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Evidence that studying histology improves students' spatial ability
Author(s) -
Schmalz Naomi A,
Condon Keith W,
Brokaw James J
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.739.2
Subject(s) - spatial ability , wilcoxon signed rank test , percentile rank , mental rotation , test (biology) , histology , percentile , psychology , medicine , mathematics , statistics , pathology , biology , mann–whitney u test , ecology , cognition , neuroscience
Spatial ability has been defined as the capacity to think about objects in three dimensions, as for example, the ability to visualize how a 3D object would look when mentally‐rotated in space. There is a general consensus that spatial ability is correlated with course performance in gross anatomy, and that spatial ability can be improved with practice and certain kinds of training. However, few studies have examined the role of spatial ability in histology. We sought to determine whether students' spatial ability can be improved simply by taking a graduate histology course in which glass slides are examined with optical microscopes. From 2013–2015, we administered the 20‐question Purdue Visualization of Rotation Test (VORT) at the beginning of the course (pre‐VORT) and again approximately 14 weeks later at the end of the course (post‐VORT). All students agreed to participate (n = 65). At baseline, the mean ± SD pre‐VORT score was 13.62 ± 4.46 for the males (n = 29) and 11.33 ± 4.52 for the females (n = 36). At the end of the course, the post‐VORT score had increased by 7.6% in the males (14.66 ± 4.06; p = 0.011, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test for paired data) and by 10.9% in the females (12.56 ± 4.23; p = 0.036). When the analysis was confined to students whose baseline spatial ability was low to average at the start of the course (defined as pre‐VORT scores at the 50 th percentile or below, i.e., the bottom half of the class) the improvement in spatial ability was more striking. For the males in this category (n = 15), their mean VORT score increased from 9.87 ± 2.10 at the beginning of the course to 11.80 ± 2.93 at the end of the course – a 19.6% increase (p = 0.002, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test for paired data). For the females in this category (n = 19), their mean VORT score increased from 7.95 ± 2.88 at the beginning of the course to 10.42 ± 4.03 at the end of the course – a 31.1% increase (p = 0.009). These results suggest that studying histology with glass slides and optical microscopes can passively improve students' spatial ability as measured by a mental rotation test, and that the greatest benefit is accrued by female learners.