Although high‐fidelity digital models of human anatomy based on actual cross‐sectional images of the human body have been developed, reports on the use of physical models in anatomy teaching continue to appear. This article aims to examine the common features shared by these physical models and analyze their educational value based on the literature on cognition, learning, and external representations. A literature search on these physical models in three popular anatomy journals published over a 10‐year period from 2001 to 2010 found that all of them have low fidelity: they oftentimes do not closely resemble the regions of the human body they are representing. They include only a small number of the structures that exist in these regions of the human body and do not accurately represent the shape and surface details of these structures. However, these models strongly correspond to the human body in the spatial relationship of the represented structures, which is crucial to achieving their educational purpose of teaching three‐dimensional comprehension and anatomical reasoning. The educational value of these models includes acting as memory aids, reducing cognitive overload, facilitating problem solving, and arousing students' enthusiasm and participation. Because these models often lack a close resemblance to the human body, their use in anatomy teachingshould always be accompanied by adequate explanations to the students to establish the correspondence between the models and the parts of the human body they are representing. Anat Sci Educ. © 2011 American Association of Anatomists.

中文翻译：

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低保真解剖模型作为外部表征的教育价值分析。

尽管已经开发出了基于人体实际横截面图像的高保真人体解剖模型数字模型，但有关在解剖学教学中使用物理模型的报道仍在不断出现。本文旨在研究这些物理模型共有的共同特征，并基于有关认知，学习和外部表征的文献来分析它们的教育价值。在2001年至2010年的10年间出版的三本流行的解剖学期刊中，对这些物理模型进行的文献检索发现，它们全都具有较低的保真度：它们通常与所代表的人体区域不太相似。它们仅包括存在于人体这些区域中的少量结构，并且不能准确表示这些结构的形状和表面细节。然而，这些模型在表示结构的空间关系中与人体强烈对应，这对于实现其教学三维理解和解剖推理的教育目的至关重要。这些模型的教育价值包括充当记忆帮助，减少认知负担，促进解决问题以及激发学生的热情和参与。由于这些模型通常与人体缺乏相似性，因此在解剖教学中使用它们时，应始终向学生进行充分的解释，以建立模型与它们所代表的人体各部分之间的对应关系。阿纳特科学教育。©2011美国解剖学家协会。