SynthesisMedical education2025
Visual-spatial abilities enhancement and spatial anatomy learning: A systematic review.
Synthesis in Medical education, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Visual-spatial abilities enhancement and spatial anatomy learning: A systematic review.Medical education · 2025Pooled it
- Use of 3D-Printed Models and Augmented Reality in Medical Student Education of Congenital Heart Disease: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR medical education · 2026Trial
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionStudent's visual-spatial abilities appear to be an important predictor of learning time, performance and knowledge in anatomy. The objective of this systematic review was to assess the relationship between spatial abilities enhancement and spatial learning of anatomy. MATERIALS AND
methodsA systematic literature search of databases (MEDLINE, Embase, ERIC, Scopus and Web of Science) was undertaken using relevant keywords. The search included citations published from inception to December 31st, 2024. The transferability of spatial abilities enhancement to spatial learning of anatomy was assessed using a 2 × 2 classification of spatial skills, in which each visual-spatial task was coded in terms of both intrinsic-extrinsic and static-dynamic dimensions. A qualitative analysis of the results was performed.
resultsThe search yielded 2135 results, which narrowed down to 8 articles after application of exclusion criteria. Significant relationships between spatial abilities and the spatial learning of anatomy were observed in five studies. Among studies reporting a positive correlation between spatial abilities and spatial learning of anatomy, within-cell transfer was observed for four studies, and across-cell transfer for one study.
conclusionsEnhanced spatial abilities seem to transfer mainly to similar tasks related to spatial learning of anatomy. However, the spatial abilities tests used to evaluate spatial abilities were all intrinsic × dynamic. A future study using different spatial abilities tests could evaluate if spatial abilities engaging different dimensions of spatial cognition could be related to different spatial anatomy tasks.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.