Theme III - Communication and scientific dissemination​

TITLE

Photo taking behaviour and academic performance in medical school

AIM

To characterize photo-taking behaviour in medical education, and its impact on students’ academic performance.

INTRODUCTION

The democratization of smartphones and tablets currently allows students to take photos during practical classes. Studies indicate that taking photos reduces the ability to remember information in the context of museum objects [1,2] - "photo-taking impairment". However, there is still no data on this behaviour and its impact in the context of education. Directed attention techniques shown to mitigate photo-taking impact in other contexts [1,2] remain unexplored to improve communication in medical education.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

In this study we characterize photo-taking behaviour and its impact on students’ academic performance in anatomy practical classes. Students attending the first year of medical school at ICBAS-U.Porto (n=69), answered a questionnaire about their photo-taking behaviour and academic performance. A sample of these students (n=37) was recruited for an interventional study during an anatomy class. One group (n=20) was asked to take 5 pictures per anatomical structure, while another group of students (n=17) was asked to observe only. Both the Professor and the class subject (urogenital system) were the same. Half of the structures were randomly selected to be presented with specific queues (directed attention) while the other half was presented without specific queues (non-directed attention). At the end of the practical class the students completed a picture based 32 question questionnaire about the lesson. Results show that 52% of students take photos during anatomy classes and that 97% prefer using a smartphone. Study groups did not differ significantly in terms of demographics and photo-behaviour, though the photo-taking group had significantly better results in a previous formal practical anatomy evaluation (p=0.021). Results from the interventional experiment show that students in the photo-taking condition had significantly worse recall of anatomy structures compared to the observation group (p=0.017), inverting the baseline tendency. There were however no significant differences between group questionnaire results for structures studied under directed attention (p=0.634). The photo-taking impairment effect seems therefore to be present in the context of anatomy practical classes and to be mitigated by directed attention strategies. This study suggests photo taking behaviour can be optimized by students and professors for improved academic performance.

Keywords: photo-taking impairment, photography, medical education

References:

1- Henkel. Point-and-shoot memories: the influence of taking photos on memory for a museum tour. Psychol Sci. 2014 Feb

2- Soares et al. Does taking multiple photos lead to a photo-taking-impairment effect? Psychon Bull Rev. 2022 Dec