The use of Self-Directed Learning (SDL) as a learning tool is increasing in today's educational environment, especially in medical schools. We wanted to examine whether all students are effective self directed learners and can make use of this learning tool to achieve learning objectives. Students (n = 125) of first-year medical training program were selected and for a period of 10 weeks they were exposed to two types of teaching programs i.e. SDL sessions and regular didactic lectures. Based on the total scores they obtained in the examination that followed they were divided into four groups. The results showed that the students of higher-scoring groups had scored significantly higher in SDL topics when compared with didactic lecture topics (75.28 ± 7.85 vs. 65.56 ± 3.93, and 67.29 ± 9.37 vs. 57.23 ± 4.51, respectively). In contrast the students in the lower-scoring groups did not score significantly higher in the SDL topics. This suggests that SDL may help "good" students to understand concepts and score well, but weak students may not benefit as they may be lacking the appropriate cognitive skills. SDL an be a very good method to make students to learn, but it should be adopted in a systemic manner keeping in mind heterogeneity of students with respect to skills.

OBJECTIVE:Among the stimulus factors, the influence of presentation level is less studied in normal-hearing individuals when using speech stimuli withvarious presentation levels for the auditory late latency response (ALLR). Hence, the present study aimed to explore the Latency-Intensity (L-I) function, i.e., how the latency and amplitude change as a function of intensity using speech stimuli. MATERIALS and METHODS:Speech-evoked ALLR was obtained from 15 normal-hearing individuals. The syllable/ta/ was used to record ALLR with an intensity of 30, 50, 70, and 90 dBSPL. Electroencephalography (EEG) from five channels was recorded and analyzed offline. RESULTS:The overall results revealed that there is an influence of intensity on P1 and N1 latencies in a nonlinear fashion. The latency change is consistent at lower intensities than at moderate and high intensities. The amplitude changes did not reach significance, though a decrease with a reduction in intensity was obvious. CONCLUSION:There is a significant effect of intensity on the latency and amplitude of ALLR in speech stimulus. However, this effect may vary for different speech stimuli.

Background Preschool vision screenings are considered to be cost‐effective methods to identify children with vision disorders. The children of this age group are poor at communicating their symptoms and hence screening is mandated. This study is aimed at estimating the diagnostic accuracy and agreement of Lea, HOTV and E visual acuity charts for detecting significant refractive errors. Methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted, in which monocular unaided vision assessment of each study participant was performed with Lea, HOTV and E charts. Stereo acuity was measured with the Randot Preschool Test and a comprehensive eye examination including dilatation was performed. Significant refractive error was defined as hyperopia > 3.25 D, myopia > 2.00 D, astigmatism > 1.50 D, anisometropia if interocular difference > 1.00 D for hyperopia, > 3.00 D for myopia or > 1.50 D for astigmatism. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were estimated. Bland–Altmann plots were generated to help identify the level of agreement between the vision charts. Results A total of 256 eyes were analysed. Lea, HOTV and E had sensitivities of 87.8 per cent, 90.2 per cent and 90.2 per cent, respectively. Specificity and positive predictive values were better for HOTV (77.3 per cent, 65.5 per cent) and Lea (75 per cent, 62.6 per cent), compared to E chart (69.8 per cent, 58.7 per cent). Negative predictive values for Lea, HOTV and E charts were 92.8 per cent, 93.8 per cent and 93.8 per cent, respectively. Bland–Altmann analysis showed good agreement between Lea and HOTV, Lea and E, and HOTV and E visual acuity charts. The acuity difference was least between Lea and HOTV charts (0.1 logMAR). Eighty‐five (33.2 per cent) eyes had significant refractive errors. Eighty (94.1 per cent) eyes were astigmatic. Conclusion The diagnostic accuracy of the visual acuity charts was high for the identification of significant refractive errors in preschool children. There was very good agreement between the visual acuity charts.

No abstract

Background:Reading and writing disturbances are common accompaniments of aphasia following brain damage. However, impaired writing in the absence of apparent primary linguistic disturbances is infrequently reported in the literature.Materials and Methods:A 67-year-old right-handed subject underwent neurological, neuroradiological, and linguistic investigations following development of a minimal right upper limb weakness.Result:The patient had polycythemia and the neurological investigation revealed right upper limb paresis. The neuroradiological investigation revealed hypodense areas involving the gray-white matter of the left postero-parietal and frontal lobe, left caudate and lentiform nuclei, and the anterior limb of the internal capsule, suggesting an infarct. The linguistic investigation revealed a mild anomic aphasia with apraxic agraphia. This mild anomic aphasia resulted primarily from the relatively poor scores on the verbal fluency tests.Discussion:The marked writing impairment, even with the left hand, points to disturbances in written output – apraxic agraphia – in the presence of near-normal spoken output. This finding should raise suspicion about hidden apraxic agraphia in subjects with posterior aphasias.