Comparison Between Scene-Independent and Scene-Dependent Eye Metrics in Assessing Psychomotor Skills

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Human Factors Engineering
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Eye metrics are crucial for skill assessment in psychomotor tasks like surgery.
• Metrics are categorized as scene-independent or scene-dependent.
• Limited direct comparisons exist for early training performance assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the sensitivity of scene-independent versus scene-dependent eye metrics.
• To evaluate their effectiveness in assessing psychomotor skill acquisition in trainees.
• To identify optimal eye metrics for performance evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Thirteen medical students performed the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery peg transfer task.
• Eye-tracking data and video analysis yielded scene-independent and scene-dependent eye metrics.
• K-means clustering and random forest models analyzed gaze behavior and performance levels.

Main Results:

• Scene-dependent eye metrics showed a clearer linear relationship with performance levels.
• A random forest model achieved 88.59% accuracy in performance classification.
• Scene-dependent metrics were identified as the most important predictors of performance.

Conclusions:

• Scene-dependent eye metrics are more sensitive for assessing trainee performance in simulated psychomotor tasks.
• These findings can improve skill assessment and training protocols.
• Enhanced assessment leads to improved operator competency and safer operations.