Exploring eye movements of experienced and novice readers of medical texts concerning the cardiovascular system in making a diagnosis

Abstract

This study used the eye-tracking method to explore how the level of expertise influences reading, and solving, two written patient cases on cardiac failure and pulmonary embolus. Eye-tracking is a fairly commonly used method in medical education research, but it has been primarily applied to studies analyzing the processing of visualizations, such as medical images or patient video cases. Third-year medical students (n = 39) and residents (n = 13) read two patient case texts in an eye-tracking laboratory. The analysis focused on the diagnosis made, the total visit duration per text slide, and eye-movement indicators regarding task-relevant and task-redundant areas of the patient case text. The results showed that almost all participants (48/52) made the correct diagnosis of the first patient case, whereas all the residents, but only 17 students, correctly diagnosed the second case. The residents were efficient patient-case-solvers: they reached the correct diagnoses, and processed the cases faster and with a lower number of fixations than did the students. Further, the students and residents demonstrated different reading patterns with regard to which slides they proportionally paid most attention. The observed differences could be utilized in medical education to model expert reasoning and to teach the manner in which a good medical text is constructed. Eye-tracking methodology appears to have a great deal of potential in evaluating performance and growing diagnostic expertise in reading medical texts. However, further research using medical texts as stimuli is required. Anat Sci Educ 10: 23-33. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.

Clinical reasoning in pharmacy: What do eye movements and verbal protocols tell us about the processing of a case task?

“…We also investigated how the processing times of the case differed between the participants who gave a correct rather than an incorrect final solution, and how the participant groups differed in making use of task-relevant and task-redundant aspects of the case. Although effective case processing plays an important role in the development of expertise, empirical studies utilizing psychophysiological research methodology in case task processing are still scarce (see, however, Berger, 2019 ; Södervik et al, 2017 ; Zumwalt et al, 2015 ; Vilppu et al, 2016 ). Better understanding of the cognitive processing of authentic-like case tasks in various disciplines and among actors with different levels of expertise enables advancing the undergraduate instruction in higher education institutions.…”

Visual Attention Pattern of Middle School Students During Problem‐Solving in Physics

“…Previous studies have found that the particular eye movement patterns correlate with success in problem‐solving (Grant & Spivey, 2003; Vilppu, Mikkila‐Erdmann, Sodervik, & Osterholm‐Matikainen, 2017). Accumulated evidence has reported that successful solvers tend to direct their gaze selectively toward the areas relevant to the task at hand (Tsai et al, 2012).…”