Investigating the Impact of Emotions on Medical Students׳ Learning
Purpose: Medical students’ negative emotions have the potential to hinder their learning, but there is no experimental evidence that this happens. This study investigated the effect of negative emotions on students’ learning processes and outcomes. Method: Eighty-five 5th-year students from a Brazil...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences
2019-06-01
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| Series: | Health Professions Education |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452301118300099 |
| _version_ | 1797968172720062464 |
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| author | Telma Kremer Silvia Mamede Milton A. Martins Patricia Tempski Walter W. van den Broek |
| author_facet | Telma Kremer Silvia Mamede Milton A. Martins Patricia Tempski Walter W. van den Broek |
| author_sort | Telma Kremer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Purpose: Medical students’ negative emotions have the potential to hinder their learning, but there is no experimental evidence that this happens. This study investigated the effect of negative emotions on students’ learning processes and outcomes. Method: Eighty-five 5th-year students from a Brazilian medical school were randomly allocated to perform a priming task consisting of reading either (1) a diary describing a patient who died due to inappropriate care caused by unprofessional behaviours (emotional group); (2) a diary describing the same patient receiving appropriate care (neutral group) (3) an irrelevant extract of a local newspaper (control group). Subsequently, emotional reactions were measured, all students studied a medical text, and two tests were administered. Main outcome measures were time spent in studying the text and situational cognitive engagement with study (learning process), and mean scores in the two tests (learning outcomes). Results: The priming task triggered higher levels of emotions in the emotional group relative to both the neutral and the control groups though levels were low. The experimental conditions did not significantly differ in learning processes and outcomes. Discussion: Two tentative explanations for the lack of difference in the performance of three conditions are raised: (1) the level of emotions triggered by the vicarious experience was too low to affect learning, (2) the tests may have been not sensitive enough to capture eventual differences. Methodological choices that may be related to the two explanations are discussed. Keywords: Emotion, Learning, Medical education, Priming task, Research methods |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:42:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e90f1c3ab1b14893a3e4c2923cb5f8ec |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2452-3011 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:42:46Z |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Health Professions Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-e90f1c3ab1b14893a3e4c2923cb5f8ec2023-01-02T18:51:26ZengKing Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health SciencesHealth Professions Education2452-30112019-06-0152111119Investigating the Impact of Emotions on Medical Students׳ LearningTelma Kremer0Silvia Mamede1Milton A. Martins2Patricia Tempski3Walter W. van den Broek4Institute of Medical Education Research Rotterdam, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Correspondence to: Fanny-Blankers Koenlaan 35, 1183WR Amstelveen, the Netherlands.Institute of Medical Education Research Rotterdam, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the NetherlandsSchool of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilSchool of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilInstitute of Medical Education Research Rotterdam, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Psychiatric Department, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the NetherlandsPurpose: Medical students’ negative emotions have the potential to hinder their learning, but there is no experimental evidence that this happens. This study investigated the effect of negative emotions on students’ learning processes and outcomes. Method: Eighty-five 5th-year students from a Brazilian medical school were randomly allocated to perform a priming task consisting of reading either (1) a diary describing a patient who died due to inappropriate care caused by unprofessional behaviours (emotional group); (2) a diary describing the same patient receiving appropriate care (neutral group) (3) an irrelevant extract of a local newspaper (control group). Subsequently, emotional reactions were measured, all students studied a medical text, and two tests were administered. Main outcome measures were time spent in studying the text and situational cognitive engagement with study (learning process), and mean scores in the two tests (learning outcomes). Results: The priming task triggered higher levels of emotions in the emotional group relative to both the neutral and the control groups though levels were low. The experimental conditions did not significantly differ in learning processes and outcomes. Discussion: Two tentative explanations for the lack of difference in the performance of three conditions are raised: (1) the level of emotions triggered by the vicarious experience was too low to affect learning, (2) the tests may have been not sensitive enough to capture eventual differences. Methodological choices that may be related to the two explanations are discussed. Keywords: Emotion, Learning, Medical education, Priming task, Research methodshttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452301118300099 |
| spellingShingle | Telma Kremer Silvia Mamede Milton A. Martins Patricia Tempski Walter W. van den Broek Investigating the Impact of Emotions on Medical Students׳ Learning Health Professions Education |
| title | Investigating the Impact of Emotions on Medical Students׳ Learning |
| title_full | Investigating the Impact of Emotions on Medical Students׳ Learning |
| title_fullStr | Investigating the Impact of Emotions on Medical Students׳ Learning |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigating the Impact of Emotions on Medical Students׳ Learning |
| title_short | Investigating the Impact of Emotions on Medical Students׳ Learning |
| title_sort | investigating the impact of emotions on medical students׳ learning |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452301118300099 |
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