
Mark W ScerboOld Dominion University | ODU · Department of Psychology
Mark W Scerbo
Ph.D.
About
211
Publications
30,994
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
4,370
Citations
Publications
Publications (211)
Interruptions that occur during high-stakes tasks in healthcare increase the likelihood of adverse events. Research on interruption management strategies has addressed the outcomes of interruptions but not what influences the decision to accept or reject them. This study examined the effects of high and low levels of three moderators on the interru...
The recent pandemic created a major transition of healthcare services and education from live to virtual platforms; however, there is little guidance on potential differences between live and virtual formats for assessing technical skills. We conducted a systematic literature review searching PubMed, OVID, CINAHL, APA PsychInfo, and Web of Science...
Background:
Communication is a critical component of the patient-provider relationship; however, limited research exists on the role of nonverbal communication. Virtual human training is an informatics-based educational strategy that offers various benefits in communication skill training directed at providers. Recent informatics-based interventio...
BACKGROUND
Communication is a critical component of the patient-provider relationship; however, limited research exists on the role of nonverbal communication. Virtual human training is an informatics-based educational strategy that offers various benefits in communication skill training directed at providers. Recent informatics-based interventions...
The present study re-examined how the timing and frequency of interruptions impact performance on a planning and decision-making task. Undergraduates performed a trip planning task and were interrupted at coarse breakpoints, fine breakpoints, or not at all. Additionally, interruptions occurred at either a low or high frequency. Based on the memory...
The goal of the present study was to examine how naturalistic interruptions (head turns) and cueing affect change detection within dynamic scenes. Based on the memory for goals (Altmann & Trafton, 2002) and visual memory theories (Hollingsworth & Henderson, 2001), participants monitoring videos were expected to detect fewer target changes when inte...
The present study examined how task priority influences operators’ scanning patterns and trust ratings toward imperfect automation. Previous research demonstrated that participants display lower trust and fixate less frequently toward a visual display for the secondary task assisted with imperfect automation when the primary task demanded more atte...
Summary statement:
Simulated environments are frequently used for learner assessment, and a wide array of assessment instruments have been created to assist with this process. It is important, therefore, that clear, compelling evidence for the validity of these assessments be established. Contemporary theory recognizes instrument validity as a uni...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, changes to telehealth laws and policies enabled more patients to meet with their healthcare providers remotely. The rapid implementation of telehealth has resulted in providers and patients interacting remotely with few existing standards or guidelines. Additionally, a cursory search of telehealth guidelines for patien...
Objective
The purpose was to explore how event segmentation theory (EST) can be used to determine optimal moments for an interruption relying on hierarchical task analysis (HTA) to identify coarse and fine event boundaries.
Background
Research on the effects of interruptions shows that they can be either disruptive or beneficial, depending on whic...
The authors highlight 3 translational gaps that limit the effectiveness of current implicit
bias training, and suggest a different approach focused on non-verbal and paraverbal communication behaviors.
The goal of the present study was to examine the effects of cuing and task interruptions on change detection within dynamic scenes. Undergraduate students watched 24 brief videos (12 containing interruptions) for anomalous feature changes appearing in 8 videos. Half of the object changes occurred during a visual occlusion, while the others containe...
A main reason for writing a research proposal is to obtain funding or other non-monetary support. For this chapter, the purpose and predominant theme of writing a research proposal is for obtaining funds to support the research project. Many of our readers already know there is no one research proposal “formula” that can be applied to all funding a...
This chapter reviews the major developments and milestones in simulation research over the last 20 years. While we acknowledge that simulation has many applications outside education, our focus in this chapter is on documenting contemporary history with a strong education focus. We first outline major developments in medicine and nursing. We consid...
In this chapter, we discuss the theoretical foundation for research and why theory is important for conducting experiments. We begin with a brief discussion of theory and its role in research. Next, we address the relationship between theory and hypotheses and distinguish between research questions and hypotheses. We then discuss theoretical constr...
In this chapter, we offer guidance on the processes of peer review for scholarly publications. We explore the purpose of peer review and summarise approaches from healthcare simulation journals. We position the role of reviewer as one of privilege and responsibility. We illustrate reviewer reports and set expectations for approaches to author respo...
In contrast to qualitative research, quantitative research focuses primarily on the testing of hypotheses using variables that are measured numerically and analyzed using statistical procedures. If appropriately designed, quantitative approaches provide the ability to establish causal relationships between variables. Hypothesis testing is a critica...
This book is the product of an international community of scholars in healthcare simulation research. Although the book has a strong focus on simulation as an educational method, the contents reflect wider applications of simulation. The book covers a broad range of approaches to research design. It is written for anyone embarking on research in he...
The goal of the present study was to examine how interruptions occurring in dynamic scenes affect the ability to detect perceptual changes during level 1 situation awareness (SA). Undergraduates were asked to watch 24 brief videos (half with interruptions) including 8 with perceptual feature changes. All videos were unique and contained multiple dy...
Background:
Attending to the wide range of communication behaviors that convey empathy is an important but often underemphasized concept to reduce errors in care, improve patient satisfaction, and improve cancer patient outcomes. A virtual human (VH)-based simulation, MPathic-VR, was developed to train health care providers in empathic communicati...
BACKGROUND
Attending to the wide range of communication behaviors that convey empathy is an important but often underemphasized concept to reduce errors in care, improve patient satisfaction, and improve cancer patient outcomes. A virtual human (VH)–based simulation, MPathic-VR, was developed to train health care providers in empathic communication...
Human factors is a field dedicated to studying how to improve work environments based on human capabilities and limitations. There are many areas where human factors can improve surgery, especially as surgery continues to evolve and new tools, technology, and techniques are developed. Simulation offers a safe and ideal environment to study, train,...
This book provides readers with a detailed orientation to healthcare simulation research, aiming to provide descriptive and illustrative accounts of healthcare simulation research (HSR). Written by leaders in the field, chapter discussions draw on the experiences of the editors and their international network of research colleagues. This seven-sect...
The present study examined whether inexperienced individuals can evaluate ultrasonography (US) images using a new rating scale and visual aids. A US image assessment tool and visual aids in the form of alignable comparison standards (one good and one poor example) were developed to rate images of the hepatorenal interface along eight characteristic...
The goal of this study was to examine how interruptions affect the acquisition of laparoscopic skills among novices. Undergraduate students with no prior laparoscopic experience completed a basic laparoscopic training task requiring them to pick up and transfer colored objects in a predetermined sequence. The number of colored objects in the sequen...
Given growing interest in advanced applications of mixed methods research, we illustrate a multiphase, mixed methods program of research involving multidisciplinary collaboration to create a computer simulation using virtual humans to teach advanced communication skills, and to test the simulation in an educational trial. Phase I comprised 3 parts....
Statement:
In this article, we report on the Second Society for Simulation in Healthcare Research Summit held in 2017. This meeting succeeded the First Research Summit from 2011 with the goal of advancing the scope of healthcare simulation research. During the one and a half day summit, some of the world's leading experts in simulation, healthcare...
This consensus group from the 2017 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference “Catalyzing System Change through Health Care Simulation: Systems, Competency, and Outcomes” held in Orlando, Florida on May 16, 2017 focused on the use of human factors and simulation in the field of emergency medicine. The human factors discipline is often underut...
Background
Despite interest in using virtual humans (VHs) for assessing health care communication, evidence of validity is limited. We evaluated the validity of a VH application, MPathic-VR, for assessing performance-based competence in breaking bad news (BBN) to a VH patient.
Methods
We used a two-group quasi-experimental design, with residents p...
Recently, we have developed a simulated environment for training surgical team members in judgment, decision making, and technical ability. The Virtual Operating Room (VOR) is a fully immersive virtual environment that augments procedural task simulator training with a simulated OR context. The VOR is modeled on a standard OR and outfitted with bot...
Objectives:
We describe a simulation-enhanced ultrasonography (US) curriculum for first-year medical students as part of a comprehensive curricular integration of US skills. Our goal was to assess student knowledge and performance of US and determine their satisfaction with the integrated curriculum.
Methods:
A committee of basic science, clinic...
Background:
The effects of refraining from practice for different intervals on laparoscopic suturing and mental workload was assessed with a secondary task developed by the authors. We expected the inability to practice to produce a decrease in performance on the suturing, knot tying, and secondary task and skills to rebound after a single refresh...
Objective:
The goal of the present study was to examine the effects of domain-relevant expertise on running memory and the ability to process handoffs of information. In addition, the role of active or passive processing was examined.
Background:
Currently, there is little research that addresses how individuals with different levels of expertis...
Intro:
The mental workload associated with laparoscopic suturing can be assessed with a secondary task that requires the same visual-spatial attentional resources. The purpose of this study was to use a secondary task to measure the incremental workload demands of single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) procedures versus traditional laparoscop...
Objective This study examined the ability of clinicians to correctly categorize images of fetal heart rate (FHR) variability with and without the use of exemplars.
Study Design A sample of 33 labor and delivery clinicians inspected static FHR images and categorized them into one of four categories defined by the National Institute of Child Health a...
As more sophisticated fetal heart rate monitoring systems are introduced into hospitals, it is important to understand how system reliability affects the potential for complacency in users. The goal of the present study was to examine differences in system reliability on trust and patterns of responding to system alerts tied to simulated fetal hear...
Introduction:
Standardized patients are a beneficial component of modern healthcare education and training, but few studies have explored cognitive factors potentially impacting clinical skills assessment during standardized patient encounters. This study examined the impact of a periodic (vs. traditional postencounter) evaluation approach and the...
Objective To determine whether a visual aid overlaid on fetal heart rate (FHR) tracings increases detection of critical signals relative to images with no visual aid.
Study Design In an experimental study, 21 undergraduate students viewed 240 images of simulated FHR tracings twice, once with the visual aids and once without aids. Performance was ex...
Workload transitions present individuals with sudden changes in workload. These transitions may affect stress and coping behaviour. Two experiments were performed using a digit detection task that shifted between low and high workload levels to examine transition effects on performance, stress, and effort. The first experiment used a large magnitud...
A visual-spatial secondary task was used as a measure of mental workload during the performance of a simulated laparoscopic surgical task. Task demands were manipulated by an increase in the degree of camera angle. NASA-TLX scores were used to corroborate changes in task demands. Results indicated that performance on the visual-spatial secondary ta...
The present study examined the ability to categorize fetal heart rate (FHR) variability with and without the use of visual aids. Participants were instructed to categorize examples of FHR images into four categories of variability defined by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: absent, minimal, moderate, or marked. Particip...
The Cambridge Handbook of Applied Perception Research covers core areas of research in perception with an emphasis on its application to real-world environments. Topics include multisensory processing of information, time perception, sustained attention, and signal detection, as well as pedagogical issues surrounding the training of applied percept...
Residencies are required to have a standardized process for transitioning patient care. This study was designed to assess a novel method of training and evaluating handoffs using both a lecture format and standardized patient (SP) interactions.
Matched group design was used to randomly assign interns to trained versus control groups, with the train...
A spatial secondary task developed by the authors was used to measure the mental workload of the participant when transferring suturing skills from a box simulator to more realistic surgical conditions using a fresh cadaver. We hypothesized that laparoscopic suturing on genuine bowel would be more challenging than on the Fundamentals of Laparoscopi...
Introduction Over the past 20 years, it has become clear that the health care systems in the United States, and around the world, are not as safe as patients might expect. Brennan et al. (1991) published the first estimate of the widespread incidence of adverse events in hospitals. Later, Bogner (1994) highlighted sources of error across several ar...
Perception has figured prominently throughout the history of experimental psychology. Following Herbart, Brentano, Helmholtz, Fechner, and Wundt - all of whom considered and researched perception phenomena - their students, the first generation of psychologists, carried the new science of psychology to universities around the world. As the psycholo...
The present study explored the effects of a workload transition on three dimensions of stress: task engagement, distress, and worry. Previous research on the effects of workload transitions has generated conflicting results. It was suggested that the concept of a continuous stress appraisal process could potentially resolve these prior conflicting...
The present study examined the ability of participants to detect critical signals embedded within dynamic fetal-heart rate (FHR) tracings using a visual aid. Participants inspected tracings for deviations in the FHR under different levels of heart rate variability. One group was given control over placement of the visual aid. A second yoke-control...
With the constant push to do more for less, the use of virtual environments (VE), simulations and serious games has exploded. Human Factors (HF) personnel often use these tools to support a range of activities, including modeling process or the effects of humans in the system; designing, testing and validating new systems and processes; training sk...
Introduction/Background: Laparoscopy places significant demands on visual attention and requires extensive practice to become proficient. Scerbo et al. have developed a method of assessing mental workload with a secondary task that requires spatial abilities.1,2 The task is based on multiple resource theory, which states that "pools" of attentional...
Introduction/Background: Scerbo et al. have used a secondary task to measure mental workload on laparoscopic tasks.1,2 This method is based on multiple resource theory, which states that when two tasks making similar demands on attention are performed simultaneously, they can interfere with one another and increase mental workload.3 Thus, a seconda...
Research has established that human patient simulators (i.e., standardized patients) are a highly beneficial component of modern medical education and training, but few studies have explored the cognitive factors that affect the ability of standardized patients to make clinical skills assessments during simulated patient encounters. This study exam...
The present study examined whether a spatial secondary task could distinguish among different levels of laparoscopic skill. Novices and surgeons with different levels of laparoscopic experience were asked to perform a peg transfer task on a laparoscopic simulator along with the secondary task. The results showed that novices performed more poorly t...
The present study examined detection performance and perceptual sensitivity for critical patterns in maternal-fetal heart rate (MFHR) signals in single and combined formats. Forty-one undergraduate students viewed simulated images of MFHR signals under four different signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios. The images contained an acceleration, early decelera...
INTRODUCTION: This study was designed to look at the challenges of standardized patients while in role and to use the findings to enhance training methods. The study investigated the effect of improvisations and multiple-task performance on the ability of standardized patients to observe and evaluate another's communication behaviors and its associ...
The present study examined how well individuals could differentiate between two different types of signals (early and late decels) in maternal-fetal heart rate tracings with and without the use of a visual aid. Twenty-one undergraduates twice viewed 80 simulated images under four different signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios. Further, the late decels were...
Healthcare simulation systems have had a transformational effect on the training and education of clinical providers. Although members of the human factors community have begun to study issues surrounding the use of healthcare simulation training systems, there has been less emphasis on the development of the technology itself. The objective of thi...
Laparoscopic surgery requires surgeons to make judgments about three-dimensional movements using a two-dimensional display. This arrangement reduces the available visual feedback information, such as certain depth cues. The current study used Fitts’ (1954) law to examine the relationship between psychomotor movement time, target size and target dis...
Examined the relationship between electrocortical activity and daydreaming. EEG activity was recorded as 16 graduate and undergraduate students (aged 18–39 yrs) responded to occasional changes in the length of 2 white vertical lines and indicated realizations of task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs). Results show a vigilance decrement. Over the course of...
The present study examined the performance of a surgical procedure under simulated combat conditions. Fifteen medical students were taught to perform a tube thoracostomy on a mannequin-based simulator in a traditional medical school setting under the direction of an ATLS® certified surgeon. The participants then performed the procedure in a fully i...
Todorović (2008 Perception 37 106-125) reported that there are systematic errors in the perception of 3-D space when viewing 2-D linear perspective drawings depending on the observer's vantage point. Because these findings were restricted to the horizontal plane, the current study was designed to determine the nature of these errors in the vertical...
Todorovic (2008) reported that there are systematic errors in the perception of 3-D space when viewing 2-D linear perspective drawings depending on the observer’s vantage point. Because Todorovic’s findings were restricted to the horizontal plane, the current study was designed to determine whether the magnitude of these errors would be similar in...
The present study applied assumptions of attention and working memory theories to tasks involving nonverbal (NV) communication. Thirty-six undergraduates interviewed for a job. Both type of interview (rote and improvisational) and type of observation (passive and active) were manipulated within groups. Participants were expected to observe fewer NV...
The use of simulation in the training of health care professionals and patients includes diverse applications such as computer modeling, patient simulators, environmental simulations, gaming, static and dynamic holograms, the use of virtual patients or virtual environments, to name a few. This panel brings together experts on the use of simulation...
This article addresses the necessary steps in the design of simulation-based instructional systems. A model for designing instructional systems is presented which stipulates that the outcome metrics be defined before the simulation system is designed. This ensures integration of educational objectives and measures of competency into the design and...
We hypothesized that novices will perform better in the operating room after simulator training to automaticity compared with traditional proficiency based training (current standard training paradigm).
Simulator-acquired skill translates to the operating room, but the skill transfer is incomplete. Secondary task metrics reflect the ability of trai...
Type 2 diabetes is now the most rapidly growing form of diabetes and has become increasingly common among children. This paper presents our work of implementing an individualized real time predictive system for blood glucose in type 2 diabetes in an iPhone application. The developed application, called HealthiManage, provides relevant feedback to p...
Interest in centralized monitoring in labor and delivery units is growing because it affords the opportunity to monitor multiple patients simultaneously. However, a long history of research on sustained attention reveals these types of monitoring tasks can be problematic. The goal of the present experiment was to examine the ability of individuals...
Increased workload during task performance may increase fatigue and facilitate errors. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) is a previously validated tool for workload self-assessment. We assessed the relationship of workload and performance during simulator training on a complex laparoscopic task.
NASA-TLX w...
A training transfer paradigm was used to evaluate a virtual reality (VR) simulator for performing the burr hole drilling portion of a craniotomy procedure. Participants used a VR simulator that had a physical drill handle interfaced with a haptic force/torque feedback system. They practiced until they met a priori performance criteria and then repe...
A training transfer paradigm was used to evaluate a virtual reality (VR) simulator for performing the burr hole drilling portion of a craniotomy procedure. Participants used a VR simulator that had a physical drill handle interfaced with a haptic force/torque feedback system. They practiced until they met a priori performance criteria and then repe...
This paper describes a prediction algorithm for blood glucose in Type 2 diabetes. An iPhone application was developed that allows patients to record their daily blood glucose levels and provide them with relevant feedback using the prediction algorithm to help control their blood glucose levels. Several methods using theoretical functions were test...
The present study examined how individuals detect critical patterns in MFHR tracings in single and multiple monitor displays. Two studies were performed, varying the number of critical signals presented within displays. In the first study, the number of critical signals increased with increases in the number of displays. In the second study, the nu...
The Simulation-Based Open Surgery Training System (SOSTS) is a virtual reality simulator designed to provide training on a simulated orthopedic bone pinning procedure. The present version of SOSTS offers five distinct combinations of multi-sensory feedback during training. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of visual and hapti...