Showercap mindmap: A spatial activity for learning physiology terminology and location

Thea Vanags, Mira Budimlic, Elissa Herbert, Tracy Vickers

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Students struggle with the volume and complexity of physiology terminology. We compared first-year undergraduate psychology students’ learning of physiological terms using two teaching methods: one verbal (control group; n = 16) and one spatial and multisensory (experimental group; n = 19). The experimental group used clear plastic shower caps to mark brain regions and affix labels to another participant’s head. The control group learned the material verbally through a game. When tested verbally, both the control and experimental groups recalled more of the 10 terms immediately after the activity (+106% and +83%, respectively) and 2 wk later (+53% and +31%, respectively) than at the pretest (P less than 0.0005). When participants’ knowledge was tested spatially (labeling a brain diagram), the experimental group recalled more terms at the posttest (+76%) and followup (+73%) than at the pretest (P less than 0.0005), but the control group who showed no improvement at either time point (+12% and +14%, respectively). These findings support the notion that spatial and multisensory learning produces improved spatial recall over time while also supporting the notion of transfer-appropriate processing.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)125-130
    Number of pages6
    JournalAdvances in Physiology Education
    Volume36
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

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