FW-HTF-R: Impact of Artificial Intelligence Aids on Clinical Skill Acquisition, Atrophy and Adaptation

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Abstract

Medical professionals learn many complex work skills. In future, artificial intelligence computer assistants will help these workers accomplish their work, and even take over some skilled tasks. When artificial intelligence aids assume skilled tasks, workers may adapt to rely on the aids, and their skills, if once learned, could atrophy. This project is investigating how learning and use of professional skills are changed by artificial intelligence assistants. The project is also studying how different assistant designs might affect learning and atrophy. Understanding these issues could lead to re-design of artificial intelligence aids and how they are used, with ultimate impact on workplace safety, training protocols, and patient care. To address these questions, the investigators are focusing on two critical skills used by clinical professionals: visual search, used by radiologists examining medical images, and spatial navigation under misaligned visuomotor spaces, which is necessary to surgeons performing robotic laparoscopic surgeries. For each skill, human participant experiments are designed to evaluate the impact of artificial intelligence assistance on skill learning, adaptation, and atrophy. The investigators are collecting data from participants without prior experience with these skills, as they learn and use the skills, and from medical residents, as they use these skills. Different artificial intelligence designs are being tested to understand their comparative impact on these participants' perceptual and spatial navigation skills. These skills are useful in many other work contexts, and the findings may generalize beyond these clinical professions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.