Combining Science and Humanities to Assess and Promote the Development of Visual‐Spatial Skills in Medical Learners

Abstract

Skillful observation and interpretation of visual information is key to practicing medicine, not only in specialties that emphasize anatomy but also for effective physical examination and recognizing patients’ emotional states and needs. Since visual analysis appears to depend heavily on tacit knowledge, often it is difficult for learners to develop and educators to teach appropriate skills. Recently, efforts to integrate the humanities into medical training have generated interest in using pedagogical methods adapted from visual art practices to teach medical learners how to analyze and interpret visual information. Such efforts are predicated on the idea that cognitive processes involved in analyzing visual information are to some extent independent of the specific nature of the visual information. As part of our ongoing efforts to develop novel approaches to promote the development of visual analysis skills in medical students, one current goal is to test whether facility in analyzing medically relevant images covaries with facility in analyzing art images and whether pedagogical approaches that are used to teach art students can increase the ability of medical learners to analyze medically relevant images. We developed a custom assessment of visual spatial ability that is based on a simple task in which subjects must identify the two similar images in groups that include two similar images and one dissimilar image. Half of the questions use histological images, while the other half of the questions use images representing fine art or furniture design (Figure 1). Sixteen experienced (3rd and 4th year) medical students completed the assessment in an initial study. The results from this cohort revealed significant, positive correlations between the subjects’: 1) past performance in 1st- and 2nd-year biomedical science courses or anatomy practical examinations and their scores on histology-based questions, 2) self-reported level of previous art instruction and time spent taking the assessment, and 3) time spent taking the assessment and overall score. Thus, as expected, in this group of experienced medical learners, those who previously demonstrated stronger performance in biomedical science courses and specifically on anatomy examinations performed better when analyzing medically relevant images. Previous experience with art instruction increased the time subjects spent taking the study assessment, and taking more time increased overall performance on the assessment. In ongoing studies, the performance of early and advanced medical learners and art students will be compared to test the effects of experience in art- and medical curricula on the ability to analyze similar and disparate images. The early medical learners will be retested after completing the histology discipline in the medical curriculum, and half of those learners also will receive explicit training in evaluation of visual images using methods drawn from art education. This will test directly the effects of 1) experience with the histology curriculum and 2) adding explicit, art-based training on visual analysis skills.