title: Appraisal of psychomotor skills of dental students at University Complutense of Madrid.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychomotor skills of the dental students at University Complutense of Madrid (UCM), using a battery of psychometric tests. The sample comprised 306 students of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th years of Odontology, who, during the last month of the academic term, took the test on rotation of solid shapes, the Embedded Figures test in its group form (GEFT), the O'Connor Tweezer test, the MacQuarrie test for mechanical ability and the indirect vision test. Before these tests began, some personal data of all students were collected. The results showed some statistically significant correlation between several personal variables (sex, manual dominance and previous skills) and performance in the psychometric tests, although no significant relation was found between these variables and the students' academic qualifications. When comparisons were made between the psychomotor tests and the academic results of the students, significant differences appeared in the tracing and dotting subtests of the MacQuarrie test, whereby those students with higher practical qualifications reached the best punctuation. In the O'Connor Tweezer test, the students who obtained the worst results were those with lower qualifications. These data could serve to detect at an early stage those students who need greater educational support. No relation was found between the GEFT and the indirect vision test.
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University Complutense of Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Alfonso García
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: de Andrés
authors.forename: Esperanza
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hidalgo
authors.forename: María J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Díaz
mesh_terms: D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D011594:Psychometrics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012737:Sex Factors; D013030:Spain; D013335:Students, Dental