In this article, the contributions of cognitive psychology to research and development of medical education are assessed. The cognitive psychology of learning consists of activation of prior knowledge while processing new information and elaboration on the resulting new knowledge to facilitate storing in long-term memory. This process is limited by the size of working memory. Six interventions based on cognitive theory that facilitate learning and expertise development are discussed: (1) Fostering self-explanation, (2) elaborative discussion, and (3) distributed practice; (4) help with decreasing cognitive load, (5) promoting retrieval practice, and (6) supporting interleaving practice. These interventions contribute in different measure to various instructional methods in use in medical education: problem-based learning, team-based learning, worked examples, mixed practice, serial-cue presentation, and deliberate reflection. The article concludes that systematic research into the applicability of these ideas to the practice of medical education presently is limited and should be intensified.

中文翻译：

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认知心理学如何改变医学教育研究的面貌

本文评估了认知心理学对医学教育研究和发展的贡献。学习的认知心理学包括在处理新信息的同时激活先前的知识，并详细阐述由此产生的新知识以促进长期记忆的存储。这个过程受到工作内存大小的限制。讨论了基于认知理论的六项促进学习和专业知识发展的干预措施：(1) 促进自我解释，(2) 详细讨论，以及 (3) 分布式实践；(4) 有助于减少认知负荷，(5) 促进检索练习，以及 (6) 支持交错练习。这些干预措施对医学教育中使用的各种教学方法有不同的贡献：基于问题的学习、基于团队的学习、工作实例、混合练习、连续提示演示和刻意反思。文章的结论是，目前对这些思想在医学教育实践中的适用性的系统研究是有限的，应该加强。