Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T15:14:47.967Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Play it Again: The Master Psychopharmacology Program as an Example of Interval Learning in Bite-Sized Portions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Stephen M. Stahl ,
Richard L. Davis ,
Dennis H. Kim ,
Nicole Gellings Lowe ,
Richard E. Carlson ,
Karen Fountain  and
Meghan M. Grady
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Medical education often presents new material as large data dumps at a single live event (lecture or symposium), in part because it is traditional, and also because this structure can be perceived as the most time efficient for busy clinicians and their teachers. However, modern learning theory and new insights from the neurobiological basis of long-term memory formation show that the format of single-event presentation of materials is not very effective. Rather, seeing the presentation of new materials over time, in bite-sized chunks, and then seeing them again at a later time, particularly as a test, leads to more retention of information than does learning the same amount of material as a large bolus in a single setting. This notion of learning over time, also called “interval learning” or “spaced learning,” is particularly well adapted to the Internet era. Here we describe an application of this concept to the learning of psychopharmacology over time in bite-sized and repeated portions structured as an “online fellowship” called the Master Psychopharmacology Program (www.neiglobal.com/mpptour).

Type
Trends in Psychopharmacology
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 15 , Issue 8 , August 2010 , pp. 491 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Stahl, SM, Davis, RL. Best Practices for Medical Educators. Carlsbad, CA: NEI Press; 2009.Google Scholar
2.Stahl, SM, Davis, RL. Applying the principles of adult learning to the teaching of psychopharmacology: overview and finding the focus. CNS Spectr. 2009; 14: 179–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Stahl, SM, Davis, RL. Applying the principles of adult learning to the teaching of psychopharmacology: storyboarding a presentation and the rule of small multiples. CNS Spectr. 2009; 14: 288–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Stahl, SM, Davis, RL. Applying the principles of adult learning to the teaching of psychopharmacology: audience response systems. CNS Spectr. 2009; 14: 412–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Ebbinghaus, H. Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. New York, NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 1964; original German text published 1885.Google Scholar
6.McKenna, SP, Glendon, AI. Occupational first aid training: decay in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills. J Occup Psychol. 1985; 58: 109–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Bell, DS, Harless, CE, Higa, JK, et al. Knowledge retention after an online tutorial: a randomized educational experiment among resident physicians. J Gen Intern Med. 2008; 23: 1164–1171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8.Davis, D, O'Brien, MA, Freemantle, N, Wolf, FM, Mazmanian, P, Taylor-Vaisey, A. Impact of formal continuing medical education: do conferences, workshops, rounds and other traditional continuing education activities change physician behavior or health care outcomes? JAMA. 1999; 282: 867–874.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9.Davis, D. Does CME work? An analysis of the effect of educational activities on physician performance or health care outcomes. Int J Psychiatry Med. 1998; 28: 21–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.Davis, DA, Thomson, MA, Oxman, AD, Haynes, RM. Changing physicians performance: a systematic review of the effect of continuing medical education strategies. JAMA. 1995; 274: 700–705.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.Doucet, M, Vrins, A, Harvey, D. Effect of using an audience response system on learning environment, motivatin and long term retention, during case discussion in a large group of undergraduate veterinary clinical pharmacology students. Medical Teacher. 2009; 31: e570–e579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Tufte, E. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, CT; Graphics Press; 1983.Google Scholar
13.Tufte, E. Visual Explanations. Cheshire, CT; Graphics Press; 1997.Google Scholar
14.Tufte, E. Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press; 1990.Google Scholar
15.Curran, VR, Fleet, L. A review of evaluation outcomes of web-based continuing medical education. Medical Education. 2005; 39: 561–567.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16.Sisti, HM, Glass, AL, Shors, RJ. Neurogenesis and the spacing effect: learning over time enhances memory and the survival of new neurons. Learn Mem. 2007; 14: 368–375.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17.Lee, JLC. Reconsolidation: maintaining memory relevance. TINS. 2009; 32: 413–420.Google ScholarPubMed
18.O'Neill, J, Pleydell-Bouverie, B, Dupret, D, Csicscari, J. Play it again: reactivation of waking experience and memory. TINS. 2010; 33: 220–229.Google ScholarPubMed
19.Squire, LR, Bloom, FE, McConnell, SK, Roberts, JL, Spitzer, NC, Zigmond, MJ. Fundamental Neuroscience. 2nd ed. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2003.Google Scholar
20.Fields, RD. Making memories stick. Scientific American. 2005; 292: 74–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
21.Glenberg, AM and Lehmann, TS. Spacing repetitions over 1 week. Mem Cognit. 1980; 8: 528–538.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22.Toppino, TC, Kasserman, JE, Mracek, WA. The effect of spacing repetitions on the recognition memory of young children and adults. J Exp Child Psychol. 1991; 51: 123–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23.Landauer, TK, Bjork, RA. Optimum rehearsal patterns and name learning. In: Gruneberg, MM, Morris, PE, Sykes, RN, eds. Practical Aspects of Memory. New York, NY; Academic Press; 1978: 625–632.Google Scholar
24.Karpicke, JD, Roediger, HL. The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science. 2008; 319: 9668.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25.Storm, BC, Bjork, RA, Storm, JC. Optimizing retrieval as a learning event: when and why expanding retrieval practice enhances long term retention. Mem Cognt. 2010; 38: 244–253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
26.Pashler, H, Horher, D, Cepeda, NJ, Carpenter, SK. Enhancing learning and retarding forgetting: choices and consequences. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. 2007; 14: 187–193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27.Bjork, RA. Retrieval practice and the maintenance of knowledge. In: Gruneberg, MM, Morris, PE, Sykes, RN, eds. Practical Aspects of Memory: Current Research and Issues. Vol 1. New York, NY; Wiley; 1988: 396–401.Google Scholar
28.Son, LK. Metacognitive control and the spacing effect. J Exp Psychol. 2010; 36: 255–262.Google ScholarPubMed
29.Stahl, SM. Methylated spirits: epigenetic hypotheses of psychiatric disorders. CNS Spectr. 2010; 15: 79–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30.Sweatt, JD. Experience-dependent epigenetic modifications in the central nervous system. Biol Psychiatry. 2009; 65: 191–197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
31.Cameron, HA, McKay, RDG. Adult neurogenesis produces a large pool of new granule cells in the dentate gyrus. J Comp Neurol. 2001; 435: 406–417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
32.Strickgold, R, et al. Sleep, learning and dreams: off line memory processing. Science. 2001; 294: 1052–1057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Marshall, L, Born, J. The contribution of sleep to hippocampus dependent memory consolidation. Trend Cogn Sci. 2007; 11: 442–450.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
34.Maquet, P. The role of sleep in learning and memory. Science. 2001; 1048–1052.Google Scholar
35.Roegiger, JL, Karpicke, JD. Test enhanced learning, taking memory tests improves long term retention. Psychol Sci. 2005; 17: 249–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36.Johnson, BC, Kiviniemi, MT. The effect of online chapter quizzes on exam performance in an undergraduate social psychology course. Teach Psychol. 2009; 36: 33–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37.Cook, DA, Thompson, WG, Thomas, KG, Thomas, MR, Pankratz, VS. Impact of self assessment questions and learning styles in web-based learning: a randomized, controlled crossover trial. Acad Med. 2006; 81: 231–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
38.Kerfoot, BP. Interactive spaced education versus web based modules for teaching urology to medical students: a randomized controlled trial. J Urol. 2008; 79: 2351–2357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
39.Kerfoot, BP. Learning benefits of online spaced education persist for 2 years. J Urol. 2009; 181: 2671–2673.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
40.Kerfoot, BP, Bortschi, E. Online spaced education to teach urology to medical students: a multi institutional randomized trial. Am J Surg. 2009; 197: 89–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
41.Small, GW, Moody, TD, Siddarth, P, Bookheimer, SY. Your brain on google: patterns of cerebral activation during internet searching. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2009; 17: 116–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
42.Wear, D. A perfect storm: the convergence of bullet points, competencies, and screen reading in medical education. Acad Medicine. 2009; 84: 1500–1504.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
43.Stahl, SM. Stahls Essential Psychopharmacology. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2008.Google Scholar
44.Stahl, SM. Stahls Essential Psychopharmacology Prescribers Guide. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2009.Google Scholar
45.Schatzberg, AF, Nemeroff, CB, eds. Textbook of Psychopharmacology. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing; 2004.Google Scholar