Are you concentrating? Some teachers are checking whether their students are paying attention by using headbands that read brain signals.
Focus headbands, made by BrainCo in Massachusetts, were used in a recent trial with 10,000Ā schoolchildren aged between 10Ā and 17 in China. OverĀ 21 days, students wore the headsets during class and teachers could monitor their average attention levels using an app.
Lights on the front of the headsets also show different colours for distinct attention levels ā flagging to teachers whenĀ a student might be daydreaming.
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The device can help teachers identify students who may need special assistance and pitch their lessons right, says Bicheng Han, founder of BrainCo. However, aside from the potential privacy issues around monitoring studentsā brain activity, some areĀ .
The Focus headband uses electroencephalography (EEG)Ā sensors to detect changes in brain waves when the wearer is highly engaged in a task. Typically, theĀ brainās high-frequency betaĀ wavesĀ are increased whenĀ weĀ are focused, and the low-frequency alpha and thetaĀ waves are more excited when we are relaxed.
The patterns vary from person to person, so Focus determines each userās maximum attention level via a series of mental tasks.
Attention gaming
Students who participated in the experiments also had to play aĀ smartphone game every day at home for 25 minutes aimed at increasing their ability to concentrate. The more they concentrated, the further they progressed in the game.
āAfter a few rounds, they will learn how to stay focused,ā says Han. He says students in the trial saw a 10Ā per cent improvement in their grades and reduced the amount of time they needed to spend on homework.
The effectiveness of such techniques is debated, though. There isnāt any strong scientific evidence to prove that this form of attention training works, says Russell Barkley at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Although improvements are often observed, it is a placebo effect, he says. āItās from parentsā expectation, not the products.ā
Brain waves recorded by EEG are used to diagnose attention disorders, but must be combined with other measurements, says Sandra Loo at the University of California, Los Angeles. āItās not that accurate by itself,ā she says.
Whatās more, says Brian Anderson at the Texas A&M University, a studentās attentiveness doesnāt necessarily assess learning. āWhat if the students are very smart, so they donāt need to pay that much attention to understand?
Han says parents were informed about the products andĀ gave consent for the trial. āWhat we really care about is forĀ users to reach their personal best.ā
