摘要：Introduction Rater-based assessment has resulted in
high cognitive demands for assessors within the education of health professionals. Rating quality may be
influenced by the mental workload required of assessors to complete rating tasks. The objective of this review was to explore interventions or strategies aimed
at measuring and reducing mental workload for improvement in assessment outcomes in health professions education.
Methods A critical narrative review was conducted
for English-language articles using the databases
PubMed, EMBASE, and Google Scholar from conception until November 2018. To be included, articles
were eligible if they reported results of interventions
aimed at measuring or reducing mental workload in
rater-based assessment.
Results A total of six articles were included in the review. All studies were conducted in simulation settings (OSCEs or videotaped interactions). Of the four
studies that measured mental workload, none found
any reduction in mental workload as demonstrated by
objective secondary task performance after interventions of assessor training or reductions in competency
dimension assessment. Reductions in competency dimensions, however, did result in improvements in assessment quality across three studies.Discussion The concept of mental workload in assessment in medical education needs further exploration,
including investigation into valid measures of assessors’ mental workload. It appears that adjusting raters’
focus may be a valid strategy to improve assessment
outcomes. Future research should be designed to inform how to best reduce load in assessments to improve quality, while balancing the type and quantity
of data needed for judgments.
