This study focuses on the infuence of a three-dimensional (3D)graphic image and a 3D-printed object on the spatial reasoningof experts and novices in the medical field. The spatial rea-soning task of this study required doctors specializing in di-gestive surgery to infer cross sections of a liver with a 3D im-age and a 3D-printed object in a situation where liver resectionsurgery was simulated. The task performance was comparedwith that of university students who conducted the same task inMaehigashi et al. (2016). The results of the analysis indicatedthat the doctors showed the same task performance when usingthe 3D image and the 3D-printed object. However, the univer-sity students learned faster and inferred the inside of a liverstructure more accurately with the 3D-printed object than withthe 3D image, and they performed equally to the professionaldoctors. Our results are then discussed in relation to previousstudies.

In this study, we experimentally investigated the influence ofa three-dimensional (3D) graphic image and a 3D-printed ob-ject on a spatial reasoning task in which participants were re-quired to infer cross sections of a liver in a situation where liverresection surgery was presupposed. The results of the studyindicated that using a 3D-printed object produced more accu-rate task performance and faster mental model construction ofa liver structure than a 3D image. During the task, using a3D-printed object was assumed to reduce cognitive load andinformation accessing cost more than using a 3D image.

In this study based on ethnographic methods, we investigated how using a three-dimensional (3D) printed liver influenced doctors during liver resection surgery. Results of the analy- ses implied that using the 3D printed liver enhanced the con- struction of elaborate mental models of patients’ livers, the mental simulation of liver resections, and the construction of shared mental models of patients’ livers among doctors. Based on these results, we compared the advantages of using a 3D printed liver over a two-dimensional (2D) and a 3D image dur- ing surgery.