scholarly journals MP22: Using galvanic skin response to identify resuscitation expertise in a pulmonary embolism simulation exercise

CJEM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (S1) ◽  
pp. S50-S50
Author(s):  
A. Belyea ◽  
N. Cofie ◽  
N. Dalgarno ◽  
E. Bruder
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Pulmonary Embolism ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Galvanic Skin Response ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Simulation Exercise ◽  
Skin Response ◽  
Medical Emergencies ◽  
Level Of Training

Introduction: As physicians gain expertise in clinical settings, they are able to handle progressively more information, in both complexity and magnitude, as an organized schema. Expert physicians then, will be more likely to function with less cognitive load —the amount of mental effort someone exerts within their short-term working memory. Expert physicians will also retain more working memory capacity to process information during medical emergencies than novice physicians. While a physician's ability to process medical information may have implications for handling medical emergencies, there is a paucity of empirical research examining the link between physicians’ expertise and biometric measures of cognitive load. Using galvanic skin response (GSR) as a surrogate measure of cognitive load, we assess whether average cognitive load differs significantly between expert and novice physicians in a pulmonary embolism simulation exercise. Methods: We analyzed GSR data (n = 39) from a 10-minute simulated pulmonary embolism exercise among 18 faculty physicians and 21 residents. Cluster and factor analyses were used to identify novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert physicians with based on participants’ GRS scores. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze group differences. Descriptive statistical techniques were also used to describe the distribution of GRS expertise by participants’ level of training. Results: Contrary to expectation, we found more than two groups of resuscitation expertise in the simulation exercise. Respectively, we identified 7.7% and 20.5% of participants as novice and expert physicians. About 36% of participants were classified as intermediate (35.9%) physicians while another 36% were classified as having an advanced (35.9%) expertise in resuscitation. All the novice physicians identified were found to be PGY1 and PGY2 resident residents. A third (33.3%) of faculty physicians and 9.5% of residents were identified as experts. As expected, average GSR score for experts (x¯ = 0.60μS, SD = 0.26) was significantly (F = 137.6, p < 0.001) lower than the average GSR for novices (x¯ = 5.55μS, SD = 0.99), intermediate (x¯ = 2.84 μS, SD = 0.40), and advanced (x¯ = 1.57 μS, SD = 0.28) physicians. Conclusion: GSR measures of cognitive load may be used to identify resuscitation expertise in managing pulmonary embolism and related medical conditions through simulation exercises.

Learning from screencast videos for software training : a comparison of dual and single-monitor learning environments

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Douglas Paul Kueker
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Worked Examples ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Instructional Efficiency ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Split Attention ◽  
Set Up

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Learning to use software programs using worked examples in screencast videos presents a classic split-attention problem that requires learners to mentally integrate information from the video with a target application. While much is known about sound screencast tutorial design, little is known about the features of the learning environment, such as monitor configuration, that may influence learning from this form of instruction. An experiment was conducted with 42 novice learners to fill this gap by comparing the effects of two common monitor configurations which split attention in different ways. In one condition, subjects split attention temporally by toggling back and forth between the video and target application on one monitor, while the other condition required subjects to split attention spatially by shifting their gaze between the video and target application displayed on two side-by-side monitors. Effects due to the monitor set-up were assessed for measures of cognitive load, instructional efficiency, and motivation using a 2x2 study design that controlled for task order. Results indicated that cognitive load as measured through task evoked pupil response was significantly higher, pless than .05, for groups with two monitors during both instruction and testing, even after controlling for working memory capacity. Analyses of three gaze-related eye-tracking metrics and NASA-TLX ratings did not indicate any differences in workload due to the experimental treatment; however, attentional patterns indicated by the eye-tracking data were shaped by two- and three-way interactions between working memory capacity and the experimental conditions. Measures of instructional efficiency indicated that the single monitor set-up was most efficient as learners attempted to transfer learning. While task efficacy and relevance ratings increased after training, monitor set-up did not affect post-training motivation.

Detecting Users’ Cognitive Load by Galvanic Skin Response with Affective Interference

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nargess Nourbakhsh ◽  
Fang Chen ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Rafael A. Calvo
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Galvanic Skin Response ◽  
Skin Response

What Influences Successful Communication? An Examination of Cognitive Load and Individual Differences

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ester Navarro ◽  
Brooke N Macnamara ◽  
Sam Glucksberg ◽  
Andrew R. A. Conway
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Low Load ◽  
Communication Errors

The underlying cognitive mechanisms explaining why speakers sometimes make communication errors are not well understood. Some scholars have theorized that audience design engages automatic processes when a listener is present; others argue that it relies on effortful resources, regardless of listener presence. We hypothesized that (a) working memory is engaged during communicative audience design and (b) the extent to which working memory is engaged relies on individual differences in cognitive abilities and concurrent amount of resources available. In Experiment 1, participants completed a referential task under high, low, or no cognitive load with a present listener, whose perspective differed from the speaker’s. Speakers made few referential errors under no and low load, but errors increased when cognitive load was highest. In Experiment 2, the listener was absent. Speakers made few referential errors under no and low load, but errors increased when cognitive load was highest, suggesting that audience design is still effortful under high cognitive load, regardless of the presence of a listener. Experiment 3 tested whether cognitive abilities predicted communication performance. Participants with higher fluid intelligence and working memory capacity made fewer communication errors. Our findings suggest that communication relies on available cognitive resources, and therefore errors occur as a function of factors like cognitive load, and individual differences.

Bilingual children’s gesture use

Gesture ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Smithson ◽  
Elena Nicoladis ◽  
Paula Marentette
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Bilingual Group

Previous studies have shown that bilinguals use more manual gestures than monolinguals (Pika et al., 2006; Nicoladis et al., 2009), suggesting that gestures may facilitate lexical retrieval or may reduce the cognitive load on working memory during speech production. In this study, we tested the generalizability of these findings by comparing the use of gestures in three groups of children (English monolinguals, Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals, and French-English bilinguals) between 7 and 10 years of age as they retold two short stories about a cartoon. The bilingual children were asked to retell narratives in both languages. The results showed that the French-English bilinguals used significantly more gestures than the Chinese-English bilinguals. With respect to gesture rates accompanying speech in English, the monolinguals did not differ from either bilingual group. The bilingual children’s use of gestures was generally not correlated with our measures of working memory (narrative length and speech rate). These results suggest that culture may be a more important determiner of gesture rate than bilingualism and/or working memory capacity.

scholarly journals LO77: Performance enhancing psychological skills in clinical simulation

CJEM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (S1) ◽  
pp. S35-S35
Author(s):  
E. Johannessen ◽  
T. Davies ◽  
A. Valeriano ◽  
E. Blackmore ◽  
A. Belyea ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Acute Care ◽  
Galvanic Skin Response ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Psychological Skills ◽  
Spike Density ◽  
Clinical Simulation ◽  
Breathing Exercises ◽  
Skin Response ◽  
Performance Enhancing

Introduction: Clinical simulations in are designed to evoke feelings of stress and uncertainty in order to mimic challenges that learners will face in the real world. When not managed properly, these sources of extraneous cognitive load cause a burden on working memory, leading to a hindered ability to acquire new information. The “Beat the Stress Fool” (BTSF) protocol is a performance-enhancing tool designed to reduce cognitive overload during acute care scenarios. It involves breathing exercises, positive self-talk, visualization, and deliberate articulations. This study aims to validate the BTSF protocol as a method for reducing cognitive load using both psychometric and physiologic measures. Methods: Data collection took place during the Queen's University “Nightmares-FM” course. This clinical simulation program involves team-based scenarios designed to teach the fundamentals of acute care to first-year family medicine residents. Participants were divided equally into experimental and control groups based on pre-existing cohorts. Participants completed a baseline state-trait anxiety inventory and a demographics survey. The experimental group was guided through the BTSF protocol prior to each of 16 simulations; in both groups, physiologic and psychometric cognitive load measurements were collected for the alternating team leader. Galvanic skin response (GSR) and heart rate (HR) were collected during a 15-second baseline and throughout each simulation using a Shimmer 3 GSR+ wearable sensor. Self-reported cognitive load was assessed after each scenario using the 9-point Paas scale. Results: The mean Paas scores for the BTSF group were significantly lower than the control group (6.2 vs 6.9, p < 0.05), indicating lower subjective cognitive load. GSR signal magnitude (p = 0.086), spike amplitude (p = 0.066), and spike density (p = 0.584) were also lower in the BTSF group. There was no difference in HR between groups. There was not a significant correlation between self-reported cognitive load and the normalized physiologic measures. Conclusion: The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the BTSF protocol in lowering the amount of perceived mental effort required to perform clinical simulation tasks. These findings were mirrored in the galvanic skin response signal, though our study was likely underpowered for significance. This is the first study to validate a proof-of-concept for the BTSF protocol in learners during simulated training.

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