INFORMATION AND COGNITION IN MEDICAL EDUCATION

该项目将探讨结构化生物医学的作用， 医学生教育中的信息化。 拟议 工作将集中在新手如何使用开发的数据库， 支持生物医学科学的学习，以及这些影响 交互对特定内容域的知识的影响。 通过 阐明学生如何使用结构化的信息资源， 促进学习，建议研究可以指导创建 利用信息技术的学习工具。 拟议的研究有两个相辅相成的目标。 第一 探索结果：外部和外部之间的相互作用 信息资源-数据库-和学生的内部 认知资源塑造知识组织， 理解一个内容领域。 第二个目标是探索 信息搜索策略：如何搜索熟练度 随着时间的推移，搜索技能的普遍性 数据库，数据库访问模式如何随问题而变化 复杂性，以及搜索熟练度 和解决问题的能力 研究设计是结构化的，但同时， 自然主义的 我们将创建一个“受控信息 大学课程部分中的“环境” 来自北卡罗来纳州医学院。 此基础 环境将是现有的查询知识 调查人员开发的勘探系统， 医学微生物学教育，并作为 拟议的研究，以解决病理学的传染病， 疾病 研究数据将来自学生的功能 在正在进行的课程中，使用数据库并解决 教师在日常活动中产生的问题 学习生物医学科学。

This project will explore the role of structured biomedical information in the education of medical students. The proposed work will focus on how novices use a database developed to support learning of the biomedical sciences, and the effects these interactions have on knowledge of specific content domains. By clarifying how students use a structured information resource to promote learning, the proposed studies can guide the creation of learning tools employing information technology. The proposed study has two complementary aims. The first explores outcomes: how the interplay between an external information resource--the database--and a student's internal cognitive resources shapes knowledge organization and understanding of a content domain. The second aim explores information search strategies: how searching proficiency develops over time, the generalizability of searching skills across databases, how patterns of database access vary with problem complexity, and the relationship between searching proficiency and proficiency in problem solving. The research design is structured but, at the same time, naturalistic. We will create a "controlled information environment" within segments of the curriculum at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine. The basis of this environment will be the existing INQUIRER knowledge exploration system developed by the investigators to support education in medical microbiology, and to be extended as part of the proposed research to address the pathology of infectious diseases. The research data will derive from students functioning in ongoing curricula, working with the database and solving problems created by the faculty as part of the routine activities of learning the biomedical sciences.