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Measuring Understanding by Reading Brain Activity

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It is common to demonstrate how well you know a topic by teaching it to others. According to Interesting Engineering, researchers are developing a way to measure how well you understand a topic by looking at your brain activity.

Where?

Researchers at Dartmouth, New Hampshire, have developed a machine learning algorithm which measures understanding of certain concepts within their student’s brains. It is one of the first studies to focus on how knowledge is learned within a school environment.

How?

The research is complicated, but on a basic level, researchers compared how new and experienced learner’s knowledge differed by measuring their brain activity when thinking about the topic in question. Using these brain scans, the team was able to get a clearer picture of how the brain reacts when it understands a topic at different levels.

The study still needs to be developed, as researchers plan on getting a more clear picture of how the brain supports complex and abstract knowledge.

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