Cognitive skills in medicine

Abstract

This chapter highlights the importance of cognitive training and skill development in carrying out complex tasking including medical reasoning and decision making applicable to catheter-based cardiovascular interventions. The first part discussed cognitive skills from a cognitive psychology perspective. To understand the nature of cognitive skills, their foundation in human cognitive architecture was introduced as a 3-storage model. This model includes the sensory register, working memory, and long-term memory. Moreover, the operation of cognitive skills in working memory in terms of perception and higher-level cognitive processes was discussed. Based on this, in the second part of the chapter, theories of cognitive skills in medical expertise were introduced. These theories make more precise predictions as they all refer to the specific task of medical diagnosis. It is important to note, however, that although the cognitive structure and cognitive skills required for medical diagnosis are already well described, assumptions on their perceptual counterparts remain vague. Hence, future research should integrate existing theories on purely cognitive aspects of medical expertise with research on medical image perception. This is in particular true for dynamic medical images, like CT scans. Moreover, future research should be directed toward the analysis of cognitive skills required for mastery of cardiovascular interventional treatments. In sum, insight into cognitive skills is very important to address problems at a perceptual and higher cognitive level. For teaching, however, you need insight in all levels of skills required for medical diagnosis and intervention such as perceptual, cognitive, social, motors, and other.