TAILORED RESPONSE TEST - A NEW APPROACH FOR TEACHING IN MEDICAL-EDUCATION

The Tailored Response Test (TRT) is an innovative approach for evaluat ing higher cognitive processes. This study was designed to assess its value as a learning device. Two Objective Structured Clinical Examinat ion (OSCE) stations assessed formulation of a differential diagnosis o f abdominal pain: a Patient station and a TRT station, The order of th e two stations for each student was varied in a double-blind, cross-ov er design. Students who had the TRT first scored significantly higher overall on the Patient station (mean = 42 +/- 6) compared with student s who did nor (mean = 38 +/- 8, p = 0.001 level), and were able to gen erate a broader differential diagnosis. These results suggest that the TRT, which involves active cognitive processing, had a positive effec t on learning. This study supports its use as both an evaluation and a learning tool. Further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms in the TRT which produce this effect.