Assignment task:
Twenty surgical residents self-select whether to join an experimental group or a control group. The members of the experimental group were trained to perform a surgical procedure using a virtual reality (VR) simulator. The members of the control group were trained to perform the same surgical procedure using traditional methods. No pretest could be conducted as the residents could not perform a surgical procedure on a patient without training. After training, all twenty surgical residents were videotaped as they performed the procedure. As a posttest, board certified surgeons, blinded to the identity and training of the residents, reviewed the videotapes. As the board certified surgeons reviewed the videotapes, they identified predefined errors per procedure minute. Correlations showed that the reviews of the board certified surgeons were highly consistent. Results showed that the mean number of errors per case was 1.25 for VR trained residents and 6.78 for non-VR trained residents. In the above scenario, what was the treatment in the research? Group of answer choices virtual reality (VR) simulator training board certified surgeon review self-selection surgical procedure