Background:
1. Self-efficacy has been established as a construct implicated in response disposition in the face of challenges: This concerns resilience and coping strategies as well as perseverance in problem solving and performance.
2. Medical reasoning offers a target for benefits of increased self-efficacy, while simulation provides effective means to support and assess complex skills acquisition by means of standardized instructional design.
3. In student role-play simulations, role taking (doctor, patient, observer) is associated with participatory modes potentially differing in terms of agency and approximation of professional practice by task requirement within the simulation. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the differential effect of participatory modes in roleplay simulation on immediate experience of domain specific self-efficacy.

Methods:
In a pre-post randomised design 194 medical students participated in role-play-simulations of an anamnestic interview (with the task determining the most likely diagnosis for each patient case). Students participated in 3 simulations according to their assigned role. Students self-assessment (5-point likert scale, 5 items) of self-efficacy for diagnostic competence took place prior to disclosure of the participatory role (pre) and after the completion of all 3 live simulations (post).

Analysis:
We will employ confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess measurement invariance for self efficacy across different participatory modes and analysis of variance to compare the effects of participatory mode on self-efficacy.

Projected results:
We expect CFA to establish measurement invariance for the construct of self efficacy across participatory modes. We expect participatory mode to affect immediate self efficacy judgment.

Conclusion:
This study yields evidence about the role of agency and task requirement by investigating effects of participatory mode in student roleplay on self-efficacy judgement.

Keywords: Simulation-based-learning, agency, approximation of practice, self efficacy, medical education.