The evaluation of BCI and PEBL-based attention tests

Abstract

New technological advances of the 20th and 21st Centuries provide several new opportunities for engineers in the future. Modern engineering methods feasible by these new technical solutions, however, cannot meet expectations in all fields and situations without adequate knowledge and competence. Spreading new and modern engineering methods as well as acquiring new applications is a crucial issue in education. In brain research, which is one of the most significant research areas of the past decades, many new results and meters have appeared that could be used in engineering methods, too. Based on brain activity observation, new meters open up new horizons in engineering applications. Electroencephalogram-based brain activity observation processes are very promising and have been used in several engineering research primarily for implementation of control tasks. In this paper, an EEG-based engineering research work is demonstrated, which supports the acquirement of practical knowledge and can measure cognitive ability with a device capable of brain activity observation. In the engineering research task, a brain-computer interface (BCI) had to be developed for the measurement of the average level of attention. The results of the BCI have been compared and contrasted to the results of two tests applied in cognitive psychology, the PEBL Continuous Performance Test (pCPT) and the PEBL Test of Attentional Vigilance (pTOAV). It can be stated that the results of the procession developed in this research and the results of the pCPT and the pTOAV tests are in correlation.