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Gaze tracking quantifies shifts in focus due to anatomy learning (535.9)
Author(s) -
Ghebremichael Abenet,
Iyer Arjun,
Zumwalt Ann
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.535.9
Subject(s) - gaze , tracking (education) , fixation (population genetics) , baseline (sea) , focus (optics) , gross anatomy , psychology , eye tracking , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , medicine , computer science , anatomy , biology , population , pedagogy , physics , environmental health , fishery , optics
This study aims to identify the shifts in gaze patterns that are correlated with learning. The gaze patterns of Medical Gross Anatomy students (n=31) were recorded as they identified tagged anatomical structures. Each student was assessed before the start of the course (baseline) and after one of 3 sequential section exams (revisit). We predict that as they become familiar with the course material, students should fixate longer on Areas of Interest (AOIs) that are relevant to identifying the structure. The experiment is still ongoing, but early results indicate that subjects’ attention focuses with experience. This trend is more pronounced in individuals with higher visuospatial ability (VSA). At baseline, individuals with high VSA spend 15‐20% more time examining non‐AOI (i.e., irrelevant background) regions of the images, whereas at revisit they spend proportionally more time fixating on the structure itself or on AOIs useful for identifying the structure. Individuals with low VSA show similar but less pronounced trends (5‐10% shift in fixation location), indicating less strategic search strategy. These shifts in focus are not observed when the subjects view structures with which they are not familiar due to having not yet encountered that content in the course. These results indicate that gaze tracking may be a useful tool for documenting anatomy learning.