Make a Personal Anatomical Atlas in Your Mind with Mental Imagery and Improve Your Active Learning of Human Anatomy

Objective: Human anatomy can be hard to learn and even harder to recall. The students often say that the subject is forgotten quickly. In this study, “mental imagery” or “mental modeling”, as an active learning technique, was applied to teach anatomy to medical students. Methods: An amusing interactive model of teaching anatomy as mental imagery was introduced. The students of the anatomy class were asked to watch an anatomical figure and then start imagery of the figure in their minds with closed eyes. At the first step, imagery of each organ and its characteristics was modeled in mind. At the second step, imagery of some organs and their relations was reconstructed in mind. The model's instruction effectiveness was assessed through a quasi-experimental study. Then, the students were asked to write their learning experiences in their portfolios, and their views were evaluated by a questionnaire. Results: The results of portfolio evaluation revealed that the students believed that this method led to profound learning and better understanding of anatomical subjects. Also, evaluation of the questionnaire regarding the students' views showed that more than 88% of the students found that anatomical concepts were easy to learn, easy to recall, less boring, attractive, less time-consuming, and useful with mental modeling. Conclusion: Imagery of the anatomy figures in mind, as an interactive learning technique, is an effective method for learning and recalling anatomy.