Conscious motor processing and movement self-consciousness: two dimensions of personality that influence laparoscopic training.
BACKGROUND
Identifying personality factors that account for individual differences in surgical training and performance has practical implications for surgical education. Movement-specific reinvestment is a potentially relevant personality factor that has a moderating effect on laparoscopic performance under time pressure. Movement-specific reinvestment has 2 dimensions, which represent an individual's propensity to consciously control movements (conscious motor processing) or to consciously monitor their 'style' of movement (movement self-consciousness).


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed at investigating the moderating effects of the 2 dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment in the learning and updating (cross-handed technique) of laparoscopic skills.


METHODS
Medical students completed the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale, a psychometric assessment tool that evaluates the conscious motor processing and movement self-consciousness dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment. They were then trained to a criterion level of proficiency on a fundamental laparoscopic skills task and were tested on a novel cross-handed technique. Completion times were recorded for early-learning, late-learning, and cross-handed trials.


RESULTS
Propensity for movement self-consciousness but not conscious motor processing was a significant predictor of task completion times both early (p = 0.036) and late (p = 0.002) in learning, but completion times during the cross-handed trials were predicted by the propensity for conscious motor processing (p = 0.04) rather than movement self-consciousness (p = 0.21).


CONCLUSIONS
Higher propensity for movement self-consciousness is associated with slower performance times on novel and well-practiced laparoscopic tasks. For complex surgical techniques, however, conscious motor processing plays a more influential role in performance than movement self-consciousness. The findings imply that these 2 dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment have a differential influence in the learning and updating of laparoscopic skills.
Institute of Human Performance, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. Electronic address: nehamal@hku.hk.
Neha
N
Malhotra
Institute of Human Performance, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
Jamie M
JM
Poolton
School of Sport and Health Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
Mark R
MR
Wilson
Department of Surgery, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
Joe K M
JK
Fan
Institute of Human Performance, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong; Department of Sport and Leisure Studies, University of Waikato, New Zealand.
Rich S W
RS
Masters
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003243:Consciousness; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000193:education*; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011594:Psychometrics
Medical Knowledge; Patient Care; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; conscious control; cross-handed technique; laparoscopic training; personality factors; reinvestment; self-consciousness