The effects of gaze-display feedback on medical students’ self-monitoring and learning in radiology

Ellen M. Kok*, Diederick C. Niehorster, Anouk van der Gijp, Dirk R. Rutgers, William F. Auffermann, Marieke van der Schaaf, Liesbeth Kester, Tamara van Gog

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Self-monitoring is essential for effectively regulating learning, but difficult in visual diagnostic tasks such as radiograph interpretation. Eye-tracking technology can visualize viewing behavior in gaze displays, thereby providing information about visual search and decision-making. We hypothesized that individually adaptive gaze-display feedback improves posttest performance and self-monitoring of medical students who learn to detect nodules in radiographs. We investigated the effects of: (1) Search displays, showing which part of the image was searched by the participant; and (2) Decision displays, showing which parts of the image received prolonged attention in 78 medical students. After a pretest and instruction, participants practiced identifying nodules in 16 cases under search-display, decision-display, or no feedback conditions (n = 26 per condition). A 10-case posttest, without feedback, was administered to assess learning outcomes. After each case, participants provided self-monitoring and confidence judgments. Afterward, participants reported on self-efficacy, perceived competence, feedback use, and perceived usefulness of the feedback. Bayesian analyses showed no benefits of gaze displays for post-test performance, monitoring accuracy (absolute difference between participants’ estimated and their actual test performance), completeness of viewing behavior, self-efficacy, and perceived competence. Participants receiving search-displays reported greater feedback utilization than participants receiving decision-displays, and also found the feedback more useful when the gaze data displayed was precise and accurate. As the completeness of search was not related to posttest performance, search displays might not have been sufficiently informative to improve self-monitoring. Information from decision displays was rarely used to inform self-monitoring. Further research should address if and when gaze displays can support learning.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1689-1710
Number of pages22
JournalAdvances in Health Sciences Education
Volume29
Issue number5
Early online date31 Mar 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2024

Keywords

  • Eye tracking
  • Feedback
  • Gaze display
  • Medical image perception
  • Radiograph interpretation
  • Self-monitoring

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