Eye-tracking analyses of physician face gaze patterns in consultations

Face gaze is a fundamental non-verbal behaviour and can be assessed using eye-tracking glasses. Methodological guidelines are lacking on which measure to use to determine face gaze. To evaluate face gaze patterns we compared three measures: duration, frequency and dwell time. Furthermore, state of the art face gaze analysis requires time and manual effort. We tested if face gaze patterns in the first 30, 60 and 120 s predict face gaze patterns in the remaining interaction. We performed secondary analyses of mobile eye-tracking data of 16 internal medicine physicians in consultation with 100 of their patients. Duration and frequency of face gaze were unrelated. The lack of association between duration and frequency suggests that research may yield different results depending on which measure of face gaze is used. Dwell time correlates both duration and frequency. Face gaze during the first seconds of the consultations predicted face gaze patterns of the remaining consultation time (R(2) 0.26 to 0.73). Therefore, face gaze during the first minutes of the consultations can be used to predict face gaze patterns over the complete interaction. Researchers interested to study face gaze may use these findings to make optimal methodological choices.