[Can problem-based learning help medical students to assimilate knowledge? Evaluation of a first semester course in medical psychology].

Before the introduction of problem-based teaching and learning schemas, careful consideration must be given to the system devised for the evaluation of results. In the framework of a problem-based first-semester tutorial in medical psychology, certain interdisciplinary skills of prime importance to a doctor were tested to establish whether they were learnt more effectively by this approach than by traditional training methods. The experimental group was found to rank higher than controls in the following behavioural capacities: precise casework; differentiated approach to further treatment of patients; the ability to form hypotheses and to test them critically.