Csaba Gergely, Szabó István, Környei József L, Kerényi Mónika, Füzesi Zsuzsanna, Csathó Árpád
Department of Behavioural Sciences, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
Institute of Physiology, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
BMC Med Educ. 2025 Apr 11;25(1):523. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07096-9.
Basic science knowledge is essential for understanding clinical studies and enhancing clinical reasoning in medical practice. However, medical students retain only a portion of the knowledge gained during the early years of medical school. We aimed to examine medical students' knowledge retention of repeated and recently learned topics in physiology and microbiology with additional analysis of individual variability. Given that prior studies have raised concerns about the validity of retention rate as an indicator of stable knowledge, we also explored alternative measures of retention.
Nineteen third- and 22 fourth-year medical students volunteered to repeat the written examinations in physiology and microbiology, respectively, in September 2022 at the University of Pécs. Students previously completed a summative test in the fall semester and another test in the spring semester. Both examinations consisted of multiple-choice questions and the second test included questions from both semesters introducing a unique form of spaced repetition. In our study, students repeated the complete second test after a 16-week non-use retention interval. Besides retention rates, we calculated the percentage of consistently correct and incorrect answers as retention measures. Correlations between retention measures and students' grade point averages (GPAs) were examined.
Significant declines in test scores were observed, with physiology scores dropping from 70.4 to 53.5% and microbiology scores from 72.1 to 57.3%. Retention rates varied significantly, with values ranging from 54.5 to 97.2%. Microbiology revealed better results of first-semester content compared to the second semester in some of the retention measures, while physiology showed no difference between semesters. Retention rates did not correlate with GPA, however, the percentage of consistently correct answers showed moderate positive correlations, while the consistently incorrect answers showed moderate negative correlations with GPA.
There was a substantial knowledge loss among medical students with high individual variability indicating the need to explore factors affecting long-term knowledge retention in real-life educational settings more deeply. Previously acquired knowledge in microbiology demonstrated superior retention, potentially attributable to the beneficial effects of spaced repetition. The lack of correlation between retention rates and GPA suggests that other measures may better reflect stable knowledge.
基础科学知识对于理解临床研究和增强医学实践中的临床推理至关重要。然而，医学生只能记住医学院低年级所学知识的一部分。我们旨在研究医学生对生理学和微生物学中重复学习和近期学习主题的知识保留情况，并对个体差异进行额外分析。鉴于先前的研究对保留率作为稳定知识指标的有效性提出了担忧，我们还探索了保留的替代测量方法。
2022年9月，19名三年级和22名四年级医学生分别自愿在佩奇大学重复生理学和微生物学的笔试。学生们此前在秋季学期完成了一次总结性测试，并在春季学期进行了另一次测试。两次考试均由多项选择题组成，第二次测试包括两个学期的问题，引入了一种独特的间隔重复形式。在我们的研究中，学生们在16周的未使用保留期后重复了完整的第二次测试。除了保留率，我们还计算了始终正确和错误答案的百分比作为保留测量方法。研究了保留测量方法与学生平均绩点（GPA）之间的相关性。
观察到考试成绩显著下降，生理学成绩从70.4%降至53.5%，微生物学成绩从72.1%降至57.3%。保留率差异显著，值在54.5%至97.2%之间。在某些保留测量方法中，微生物学显示第一学期内容的结果优于第二学期，而生理学在两个学期之间没有差异。保留率与GPA没有相关性，然而，始终正确答案的百分比显示出中等程度的正相关，而始终错误答案的百分比与GPA显示出中等程度的负相关。
医学生中存在大量知识流失，个体差异很大，这表明需要更深入地探索现实教育环境中影响长期知识保留的因素。先前获得的微生物学知识显示出更好的保留效果，这可能归因于间隔重复的有益作用。保留率与GPA之间缺乏相关性表明，其他测量方法可能更好地反映稳定的知识。
