Implicit learning system for teaching the art of acute cardiac infarction diagnosis

Abstract

There are two types of knowledge – declarative (theoretical) and procedural (practical skills). While the former knowledge may be acquired by reading books, the latter requires long intensive practice. The majority of computer-aided learning systems teach declarative knowledge only. This paper presents basic ideas of building intellectual computer systems for teaching procedural expert knowledge, such as medical diagnostic skills. Two sub-problems are under consideration – the elicitation of experienced physician’s decision rules and the construction of the computer system for teaching these rules. Such systems utilize the principle of implicit learning. The authors present the methodology of practical realization of these ideas in application of teaching the art of acute cardiac infarction diagnosis. This work is supported by the Scientific Programs ”Mathematical Modeling and Intelligent Systems”, “Fundamentals of Information Technology and Systems” of the Russian Academy of Sciences; the projects 04-01-00290, 05-01-00666 of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research; the grant 1964.2003.1 of the President of the Russian Federation for the support of the prominent scientific schools.