Development of visual diagnostic expertise in pathology

In this study, we use methods from information-processing to explore the visual diagnostic processes of novice, intermediate, and expert pathologists. Subjects were asked to examine and interpret a set of slides while we collected think-aloud verbal protocols and captured on digital video the actual visual data they examined from the microscope. We performed an in-depth combined video and protocol-based analysis of processes and errors occurring as the task was performed. Additionally, we collected measures of accuracy, certainty, and difficulty for all cases. Our preliminary analysis identified significant differences between groups in all three major aspects of this task: searching skills, perceptual skills and cognitive/reasoning skills. We describe the implications of our preliminary cognitive task analysis on the design of a developing intelligent educational system in Pathology.