General characteristics and pretraining parameters of the participants in group A and group B
| Group A (n=42) | Group B (n=41) | P value | |
| Gender (male: female) | 12：30 | 11：30 | >0.999a |
| Age (years) | |||
| Experience of micromanipulations (hours) | 0 | 0 | >0.999a |
| Confidence with practice tasks on the porcine eyes (95% CI) | 5.50 (4.76 to 6.24) | 5.44 (4.84 to 6.04) | 0.90b |
| Confidence to be a surgical assistant (95% CI) | 4.02 (3.60 to 4.68) | 3.95 (3.20 to 4.70) | 0.88b |
| Preferred practice modulator | 42 | 41 | < 0.001a |
| Fruits | 25 | 2 | |
| AR modulators | 3 | 20 | |
| Porcine eyes | 14 | 19 | |
| Factor considered most important to strengthen confidence | 42 | 41 | 0.12a |
| Enough time of modulator practice | 18 | 18 | |
| Enough mentor instruction | 8 | 2 | |
| Enough clinical practice | 16 | 21 |
Statistical methods: a, Chi-Square analysis; b, Mann-Whitney U test