Visual expertise development in anatomy education

Overview

This research strand sits at the intersection of medical education, cognitive neuroscience, and educational psychology. At its core, we ask: how do anatomical experts see what novices miss?

key publications: [Darici et al., 2023a; Darici et al., 2023b; Bellstedt et al., 2024]

Eye-tracking to measure visual attention

We primarily focus on eye-tracking technology to record and analyse the eye movements of experts and novices as they view anatomical images, such as ultrasound scans, histological sections, radiographs, and cross-sectional anatomical structures.

This data serves four research objectives:

1. Analyze visual search patterns
What eye movement signatures are associated with accurate image interpretation? Do generalizable strategies exist that transcend specific stimuli? And what do gaze patterns reveal about underlying cognitive processes?

2. Characterize expertise differences
How does expert gaze differ from that of novices? How do eye movements shift as a function of task difficulty?

3. Track developmental trajectories
How do visual search strategies evolve across the course of medical training? Is this development linear, or do qualitatively distinct intermediate stages emerge?

4. Visual training through eye movements modeling examples
How can expert eye movements be used to guide novice learning? Which individual learner characteristics and contextual factors moderate the effectiveness?

Educational impact

The findings from this research strand may inform the design of evidence-based teaching materials for anatomy education. The goal is to produce scalable, evidence-based visual training tools that can be integrated into existing medical courses without placing additional demands on teaching staff.