Investigating an errorless learning approach for developing dental operative technique skills: A pilot study

Explicit instruction (conscious knowledge/rules) is generally used for learning dental operative skills; however, recent work has demonstrated advantages of learning skills implicitly with minimal accrual of conscious knowledge and reduced attentional demands. Therefore, this study examined the effects of learning handpiece manipulation skills explicitly (errorful) and implicitly (errorless: limited error detection/correction) under conditions of increased attentional demands (ie multitasking and additional instructions).

Non-dental university students were randomly assigned to errorless (n = 11) or errorful (n = 8) groups. They used pencil lead instead of a bur, with errorless learners shading shapes from simple (small circle) to complex (cross), while errorful learners shaded the shapes in reverse. During testing, they completed simulated cavities in baseline, additional instructions and multitask conditions. Learning performance was calculated as per cent of the shape shaded successfully. Test performance was computed as error in cavity length/depth and was compared with dental students who had completed their operative technique course (n = 14).

Errorless learners were more accurate than errorful learners especially when shading difficult shapes (P = 0.042). With additional instructions, errorless and errorful learners did not differ in cavity depth (P = 0.057) or length (P = 0.540). When multitasking, errorless learners prepared the cavity length (P = 0.048) but not depth (P = 0.920) more accurately than errorful learners. Overall, performance of errorless learners was comparable to dental students.

These preliminary findings suggest handpiece skills can be acquired implicitly via errorless learning, and it is less attentionally demanding than errorful learning, as evident by maintenance of preparation performance when processing additional relevant instructions and multitasking.