Visual scanning, pattern recognition and decision-making in pulmonary nodule detection.
Eye movements were recorded while four subjects searched a set of 60 films, 24 normal and 36 abnormal for pulmonary nodules. Error rates, scanning patterns and the dwell time of fixation clusters on normal and nodule-containing areas of the film were studied. Using the assumption that prolonged dwell time indicates intensive processing of visual data, a model was developed for nodule detection that includes four steps: orientation, scanning, pattern recognition and decision-making. False-negative errors were divided into three classes: scanning errors, recognition errors and decision-making errors. Of 20 false-negative errors, 30% were considered scanning, 25% recognition and 45% decision-making.
D003657:Decision Making; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005133:Eye Movements; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011859:Radiography; D013679:Technology, Radiologic; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception