EFFECT OF IMAGINAL ABILITY, VERBAL ABILITY AND MNEMONICS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED ASPECTS OF A PHYSICAL EXAMINATION.
Contributors: New York University.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 116
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study evaluated the efficacy of mnemonic learning strategies designed to help undergraduate nursing students learn content materials necessary to develop psychomotor skills used in performing a physical examination. The participants in this study were 129 nursing students from a large state university randomly divided into an organizational control group and a mnemonic treatment group. The treatment group was instructed in the use of first letter and loci mnemonics and given practice opportunities using computer-assisted-instruction. The data were generated from questionnaires and a psychomotor check-off sheet.

Data analysis used correlational and multiple regression techniques. The hypotheses were: (1) students instructed to learn with mnemonic strategies will demonstrate higher sequencing and accuracy scores in the performance of selected aspects of a physical examination and (2) the combination of individual verbal and imaginal abilities will permit more accurate prediction of performance of selected aspects of a physical examination among students using mnemonic learning strategies than either of the variables alone. Additional analyses examined the influence of individual verbal and spatial ability on the performance of those aspects of the physical examination which had been cued with verbal and spatial mnemonics.

The mnemonic treatment group scores were significantly higher than the control group scores, offering support for the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis was also supported as the combination of individual verbal and imaginal abilities allowed for more accurate prediction of performance in the mnemonic treatment group than either variable alone.

An additional finding of interest was that spatial ability as measured by performance on the Form Board Test, was more predictive of performance than verbal ability. On the Form Board Test, the mean score of the participants, who were 96% female, was 72.94 which is much lower than the mean of 124.8 which was reported by Ekstrom, French, and Harman.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-01, Section: B, page: 0074.

Thesis (PH.D.)--NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, 1987.

School code: 0146.