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The purpose of this study was to determine the retention rate of anatomical detail in physical therapist students who had taken a human anatomy course based on computerassisted instruction and models and compare their retention rates with those in the literature. The subjects were 28 physical therapist students enrolled in their first professional semester. A test instrument was administered before the students took their required anatomy course, at the conclusion of the course, 6 months after the course was completed, and 1 year after the course was completed. Our study showed that the students retained information on anatomical detail at both 6 months and 1 year after the anatomy course. These observations are in contrast to those previously reported in the physical therapy literature, but they are in agreement with reports from other disciplines. Considering the cost of a dissection laboratory, if the method of instruction makes no difference in student retention, then computer software, models, and other alternatives that save considerable expense are valuable.
Anderson et al. (Sat,) studied this question.