The Use of Task-Evoked Pupillary Response as an Objective Measure of Cognitive Load in Novices and Trained Physicians: A New Tool for the Assessment of Expertise

Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
Adam SzulewskiDaniel Howes

Abstract

Task-evoked pupillary responses (TEPRs), or changes in pupil size, correlate with changes in cognitive processing demands. The magnitude of this change is a reliable marker of cognitive load. The authors used TEPRs to compare cognitive load between novices and trained physicians as they answered clinical knowledge questions. In 2013, 20 emergency medicine trainees were recruited and divided into novice (n = 10) and trained physician (n = 10) groups. The authors used mobile eye-tracking glasses to assess changes in pupil diameter as participants answered arithmetic questions, general knowledge questions, and clinical emergency medicine questions in a controlled setting. Questions were categorized by difficulty a priori. Difficult arithmetic questions caused greater changes in TEPRs than easy ones (P = .024). TEPRs were similar between groups when answering general knowledge questions (P = .383) but were significantly greater for novices than trained physicians when answering clinical questions (P < .001). TEPRs in trained physicians were significantly greater when answering difficult clinical questions than easy ones (P < .001), whereas TEPRs in novices were similar (P = .291). For those clinical questions answered correctly by ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 15, 2015·Medical Education·Faizal A HajiAdam Dubrowski
Jul 6, 2016·BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making·Tad T BrunyéJoann G Elmore
Dec 17, 2016·Medical Education·Andreas GegenfurtnerJeroen Jg van Merriënboer
May 5, 2017·Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges·Jonathan A RippHasan Bazari
Jun 23, 2018·Circulation·Adam ChengUNKNOWN American Heart Association Education Science Investigators; and on behalf of the American Heart Association Education Scienc
Sep 2, 2016·Medical Education·Ellen M Kok, Halszka Jarodzka
Jul 28, 2018·AEM Education and Training·Corey R HeitzLalena M Yarris
May 30, 2020·PloS One·Nora CastnerEnkelejda Kasneci
Oct 28, 2016·Advances in Health Sciences Education : Theory and Practice·Adam SzulewskiJeroen J G van Merriënboer
Sep 1, 2017·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·Corey R HeitzLalena M Yarris
May 24, 2019·PeerJ·Costanza PeinkhoferDaniel Kondziella
Oct 5, 2017·PeerJ·Yousri MarzoukiSebastiaan Mathôt
Jun 5, 2020·Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges·Adam SzulewskiJohn Sweller
Mar 28, 2021·Medical Education·Joy Yeonjoo LeeJeroen J G van Merriënboer
Jun 29, 2021·Frontiers in Surgery·Ester Marín-ConesaMaría Luisa Sánchez-Ferrer
Nov 7, 2020·World Journal of Urology·I-Hsuan Alan ChenJustin W Collins
Sep 9, 2021·Computers, Informatics, Nursing : CIN·Bryan A WilbanksKatherine M Dudding
Jul 3, 2021·The Annals of Thoracic Surgery·Lauren V HuckabyRajeev Dhupar

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