Medical and veterinary students' structural knowledge of pulmonary physiology concepts

Purpose. The goal of this study was to assess quantitatively medical and ve terinary students' knowledge structures of 12 pulmonary physiology concepts before and after receiving a focused instructional block. The "goodness of fit" and internal consistency reliability of the students' knowledge struc tures were evaluated. Indexes of the students' structural knowledge were co rrelated with customary measures of student learning: of the same concepts, Method. Knowledge structures were assessed using a questionnaire that reque sted similarity judgments about all possible pairs of the concepts: n(n - 1 )/2 = 66 pairs. The similarity judgment data were analyzed using the indivi dual differences (INDSCAL) model of multidimensional scaling (MDS). Dimensi on weights for individual students were then correlated with their final ex amination scores. Results. A four-dimensional MDS solution provided the best structural fit t o die pairwise concept-similarity data. Dimension 1 ranges from central of breathing to lung gas exchange. Dimension 2 ranges from control of breathin g to respiratory mechanics, Dimension 3 separates perfusion from diffusion. Dimension 4 addresses ventilatory control. Hierarchical concept clusters a re located within this framework. However, indexes of structural learning d id not correlate with other measures of knowledge about the same concepts, Conclusion. The Study outcomes, in contrast to research in other fields, su ggest that structural knowledge in this domain differs from knowledge asses sed by standard examinations, Further research involving other basic scienc e or clinical concept sets is needed to verify or refute this finding.