The Effects of Action Observation and Motor Imagery on Students' Ability to Locate Anatomical Locations: A Randomised Control Trial

Teesside University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Action Observation; Motor Imagery

Treatments: Other: Motor Imagery; Other: Traditional Teaching; Other: Action Observation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06043219

TeessideU23

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this investigation is to measure if additional pedagogical techniques (Action Observation and Motor Imagery) improve student's ability to identify anatomical structures compared to traditional teaching techniques.

Full description

The aim of this investigation is to measure if additional pedagogical techniques (Action Observation and Motor Imagery) improve student's ability to identify anatomical structures compared to traditional teaching techniques. Action observation is defined as watching human movement either via a pre-recorded video or a live demonstration. Motor imagery is defined as the mental representation of human movement, including its sensory and motor aspects, without physically executing the action. For example, imagining the feeling and effort of moving your upper-limb to reach out and grasp a glass of water from on top of a table. Motor imagery practice is defined as the structured engagement in motor imagery over time for the purpose of acquiring and enhancing motor skills.

Traditional teaching of anatomy using a common powerpoint based method, will be compared to the traditional powerpoint method plus the addition of action observation techniques or action observation and motor imagery techniques. The investigation, will also look at whether these interventions have an effect on information retention, by retesting the groups at a later date.

Enrollment: 33 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Level 4 (year one) pre-registration Teesside University physiotherapy/Occupational Therapy/Radiography/Sports Rehab students.
• No previous specific University anatomy training.
• Willing to provide informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Non Teesside University students
• Healthcare students with previous University level anatomy knowledge (including those with past healthcare degrees).
• Not willing to provide consent.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

---

33 participants in 3 patient groups

Traditional Teaching

Active Comparator group

Description:

Traditional anatomical teaching provided by a powerpoint lecture.

Treatment:

Other: Traditional Teaching

Action Observational

Experimental group

Description:

Traditional anatomical teaching via a recorded powerpoint and additionally receiving practice of the task via action observation.

Treatment:

Other: Action Observation

Other: Traditional Teaching

Action Observational and Motor Imagery

Experimental group

Description:

Traditional anatomical teaching via a recorded powerpoint and additionally receiving practice of the task via action observation and at the same time imagine themselves executing the same action

Treatment:

Other: Action Observation

Other: Traditional Teaching

Other: Motor Imagery