Abstract
Purpose: Spatial perception is an essential skill for professional dentists. The objective of this study was to observe the spatial ability, as well as anatomy module grades, of dental students at a dental education center in Indonesia and relate these to gender and cohort.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out where dental students in years (cohorts) 1, 2, 4–6 were invited to take the Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Test (PSVT-R) and the redrawn Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test (MRT) in order to assess spatial ability. In addition, the 1st- and 2nd-year dental students carried out gross anatomy assessments. Spatial ability test results were compared using an independent t-test to detect gender differences, one-way analysis of variance to inspect cohort differences, and correlation relative to anatomy module scores.
Results: A total of 326 dental students voluntarily participated. Statistically significant gender differences were found in both spatial ability tests in the overall sample (PSVT-R: p<0.001; MRT: p=0.001). When the 1st- and 2nd-year dental students were pooled, significant gender differences were detected, in which males scored higher than females in both spatial ability tests (PSVT-R: p<0.001; MRT: p=0.003). In anatomy, however, females scored higher than the males (p=0.005). In addition, there were weak to moderate, but significant correlations between spatial ability tests and anatomy scores.
Conclusion: This study indicated that spatial ability may not be the only factor predicting the academic performance of dental students. However, dental students with low spatial ability scores may need supplementary educational techniques when learning specific spatial tasks.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 309-318 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Korean Journal of Medical Education |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 29 Nov 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Erli Sarilita: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4678-2744; Yurika Ambar Lita: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3911-2777; Dani Rizali Firman: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0634-1853; Tracey Wilkinson: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9904-7519; Sri Susilawati: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1004-2055; Risti Saptarini: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2186-429X; Dudi Aripin: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0669-1936; Endang Sjamsudin: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9669-6465 Acknowledgements: We would like to convey our gratitude to Dr. S.Y. Yoon for granting permission to use the Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Test (PSVT-R) and to Dr. Michael Peters for granting permission to use the redrawn Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test (MRT). In addition, we would like to extend gratitude to all the participants in this study. Funding: No financial support was received for this study. Conflicts of interest: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported. Author contributions: Conceptualization: E. Sarilita, YAL, DFR, TW; methodology: E. Sarilita, YAL, DFR, TW; formal analysis: E. Sarilita, YAL, TW; validation: E. Sarilita, YAL; writing–original draft preparation: E. Sarilita; writing–review and editing: E. Sarilita, YAL, DFR, TW, SS, RS, DA, E. Sjamsudin; and approval of final manuscript: all authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Korean Society of Medical Education. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Anatomy
- Dental students
- Spatial navigation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education