169 - The Anatomy of Confidence: Investigating Metacognitive Judgements of Anatomical Learning and Performance

Poster Board Number: 169
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Co-authors:

Ryan Phan - Faculty of Health Sciences - McMaster University; Sorin Darie, RMT - Faculty of Health Sciences - McMaster University; Rabbea Sidhu - Faculty of Health Sciences - McMaster University; Alex Cen - Faculty of Health Sciences - McMaster University; Nyssa Rousta - Faculty of Health Sciences - McMaster University; Malak Aiad - Faculty of Health Sciences - McMaster University; Linda Wu - Faculty of Health Sciences - McMaster University; Josh Mitchell, BEng - Developer, Education Program in Anatomy, McMaster University; Danielle Brewer-Deluce, PhD - Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University; Bruce Wainman, PhD - Director, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University

Abstract Body : Introduction and Objective:

Judgment of learning (JOL) and judgment of performance (JOP) are important metacognitive processes that allow students to self-assess their understanding of a topic, and then identify and ameliorate deficiencies in their knowledge either prior to an assessment (JOL) or after an assessment (JOP). With virtual education becoming more prolific, it is critical to ensure that students’ metacognitive abilities are retained when learning in virtual environments to support self-regulation. This study will compare JOL and JOP rankings (standardized to participants’ test scores) before and after participants learn anatomy in virtual reality (VR) or physical (PH) environments to assess for both learning and modality-specific differences in metacognitive ability.



Materials and Methods:

One hundred seventy-six undergraduate students with no formal anatomy background will be recruited to this study. Participants will be tested on nominal anatomy both prior to and after learning 15 bony landmarks on a thoracic vertebra in either a PH or VR learning environment. JOPs will be completed after each pre- and post-test, and a JOL will be completed after learning (prior to post-test). Judgment accuracy will be measured as the difference between JOP and test score for comparison.



Results:

Preliminary data (n = 20) have been analyzed. Regardless of the learning modality, JOP accuracy significantly decreases from pre- (before learning) to post-test such that post-test JOPs underestimate performance more (RM ANCOVA, p = 0.003). There was also no effect of learning modality on students’ JOLs (ANCOVA, p = 0.073), but these values were significantly correlated with post-test JOPs (R2 = 0.656, p< 0.001). Lastly, post-test JOP accuracy was significantly negatively correlated with actual post-test scores (R2 = 0.355, p = 0.006).



Conclusion:

Novice students consistently underestimate their pre-test and post-test performance on a nominal anatomy test regardless of learning modality (VR vs PH), and do so more strongly after learning and if they are higher performing. Together, this suggests that with learning, students may become more aware of all that they do not know, which decreases their confidence in their understanding.



Significance and Implication:

These findings underscore the dynamic nature of metacognitive processes and highlight an opportunity for anatomy educators to implement targeted interventions during learning in all modalities to improve student confidence. Overall, more accurate JOPs/JOLs foster a more nuanced metacognitive awareness that supports learners’ self-regulation and development.