Emostroop is up and running here at UMich. A big shoutout to the eLab at the business school, who agreed to host the site and let their server run my PHP scripts. I'll post the link once our Iowa subjects are run: we need to be sure of the data for now.
The brain processes facial expressions quickly and automatically. This processing can be measured in simple psychological experiments by its interference with other tasks. Since the strength of this processing is likely linked with an individual's capacity for empathy and compassion, these sort of experiments may help measure indivduals' emotional sensitivity. We will be testing medical students at various stages of education, doctors in various specialties, nurses, and other medical care professionals who deal with patients relative to other people. Do doctors have better (or worse!) empathic skill than non-doctors? Does empathic skill predict the specialty a medical student chooses? Does a student's empathic skill relate to performance on SP tests, on USMLE Step 2, on their clerkship evaluations? Is this the sort of measure admissions departments would find useful for determining non-cognitive skills of applcants?
Simulation is obviously valuable for rare, dangerous, complex procedures which require specific motor skill. Laparoscopic surgery is a common example: something you don't want a novice to do on a live patient, but something that must be done to be learned. The University of Michigan's Clinical Simulation Center provides an excellent opportunity to study the most effective ways to use simulation to promote learning. Does learning happen best in realistic settings, or if the student is allowed to control the practice situation? Does emotional tone (urgency, seriousness) or cognitive business (sounds of other monitors and alarms, presence of cohorts and/or assistants) affect learning? Will a student who has practiced leisurely and often outperform one who has practiced another who has practiced seldom but strenuously in a real situation?