Understanding educational caregivers accuracy in detecting facial expressions of pain in children: an eye-tracking study

Abstract

Facial expressions of pain are important indicators that an individual needs attention from others. Previous studies have found that different caregiver groups have had difficulty in distinguishing genuine, suppressed and fake pain in children. The current study examines education professionals and their ability to recognize pain expressions in children while their eye-movements were tracked. Eye-tracking was used to understand their accuracy in detecting pain expressions, as well as identifying strategies to improve recognition. Results indicated that participants were more accurate for suppressed than fake expressions, and more for fake than genuine expressions. Results from eye movement patterns offer information on how to improve accuracy upon recognition. For genuine and suppressed expressions, participants must attend to the eye zone longer than the mouth zone. For fake expressions, the mouth zone needs more attention to increase accuracy. Also, when participants spent more time in the eye zone than the mouth zone, their levels of accuracy decreased.