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This study explored whether having a better performance in usual presentation condition, more years of experience, and higher volume of annual mammogram assessment make a radiologist better at perceiving the gist of the abnormal on a mammogram. Nineteen radiologists were recruited for two experiments. In the first one (gist experiment), the initial impressions of the radiologists were collected based on a half-second image presentation on a scale of 0 (confident normal) and 100 (confident abnormal). In the second one, radiologists viewed similar set of cases using BreastScreen Reader Assessment Strategy platform and rated each case on a scale of 1-5. Using Spearman correlation, we explored if the area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) in two experiments were correlated. Radiologists were also grouped based on variables describing their experience levels and workload and their performance in both experiments were compared among the groups. The AUC values in the gist experiment was not significantly correlated to the AUC values in the normal reporting experiment (Spearman correlation=0.183, p-value=0.453). Radiologists’ performances under the normal reporting conditions, was linked to the number of cases per week (p=0.044), number of hours per week currently spent reading mammograms(p=0.028), and number of years they have been reading mammograms (p=0.041). However, none of the variables reached a p-value<0.05 for the AUC of the gist experiment. The results suggest that further studies should be done to establish relationships between the gist response and radiologists’ characteristics since being a high-performing radiologist, highly experienced radiologist, or reading high volume of mammograms does not indicate superior capability when perceiving the gist of the abnormal.
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