Detecting student attention through electroencephalography signals: a comparative analysis of deep learning models

Abstract

In the landscape of educational technology, understanding and optimizing student attention is important to enhance student’s learning experience. This study explores the potential of using electroencephalography (EEG) signals for discerning students' attention levels during educational tasks. With a cohort of 30 participants, EEG data were meticulously collected and subjected to robust preprocessing techniques, including independent component analysis (ICA) and principal component analysis (PCA). The research then employed different deep learning algorithm such as long short-term memory (LSTM), recurrent neural network (RNN), gated recurrent unit (GRU), multi-layer perceptron (MLP), and convolutional neural network (CNN) classifiers to predict students' attention. The results reveal notable variations in the classifiers' predictive performance. Our finding revealed that the LSTM model emerged as the top performer and achieved 96% of the accuracy. This study not only contributes to the advancement of attention detection in educational technology but also underscores the importance of preprocessing methodologies, such as ICA and PCA, in optimizing the performance of deep learning models for EEG-based applications.