Eye Movement Modeling Examples as a Teaching Tool for Epidural Block

Eye Movement Modeling Examples (EMME) is the youngest topic within the field of applied eye-tracking research in Educational Science. These are video recordings of a model executing a task and explaining how he goes about that. On top of that, the model's eye movements are tracked and replayed on top of the video.

It addresses the question, how visual expertise could be trained with the help of instructional videos of real-world tasks that are explained by experts in the field. These videos include an overlay of these experts' visual focuses to support the learner in connecting the verbal explanation of the expert to the real-world complexity of the task. The aim of this study will be to evaluate whether eye-tracking assisted teaching may improve the novice, inexperienced, trainee's performance in executing an epidural block on an epidural simulator and may change its visual patterns as assessed by eye-tracking glasses.

The study will enroll 14 novice trainees who will be randomized into two equal groups to receive (study group) or to don't receive (control group) a pre-recorded video (intervention) containing the instructions on where to focus their gaze while performing the epidural procedure.

All the trainees (study and control group) will be asked to perform the epidural procedure using a standardized epidural simulator while wearing eye-tracking glasses.

For this study, the investigators will use a commercially available Tobii Pro Glasses 50 Hz wearable wireless eye tracker. This system can measure eye movements using cameras integrated into the eyeglasses which record the corneal reflection of infrared lighting to track pupil position, mapping the subject's focus of attention on video recordings of the subject's field of vision (gaze).