Forgetfulness of the contents of histology in students of medicine

Abstract

Memory: ability to record, file, classify and later recover of information., essential In processing information and learning, In analogy with a cornputer. Forgetfulness: failure to transfer information from short term rnernory to long term memory  or to recover information from the latter. Aim: to study forgetfulness in contents of Histology in students one and halfyear aíter regular course. To evaluate leve] of re-utilization of contents in second and third year courses. Students with high  performance ¡u 2002 (n=26) were evaluated with 20 cytology and histology questions and 20 questions related to organs.  20 inultiple choice and 20 brief filled answers were useci, expressing the level of usefulness of the contents in Physiology  aun Physicochemistry, and in the first quarter of Pathology, Microbiology and Pharmacology. The performance of 2002  course was  compared with the current test, results of cytology and histology questions versus organs ones and multiple  chotee answers versus brief filled answers. The loss was in the order of 50% in the recovery of contents (37.07 ± 1,76 = 92,6%vs. 18,52 ± 4,33 = 46,3%)without difference between cytology and histology versus organs neither among multiple choice answers versus brief filled answers. The highest usefulness in the contents refers to Pathology (69%) and  Physiology (50%) and the lcsser to Physico- Chemistry.(7%) We estímate that forgetfulness in our students would have  been even higher without the employnient of active techniques of learning.