Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-018-7016-z

EEG in classroom: EMD features to detect situational interest

of students during learning

Areej Babiker 1,2 & Ibrahima Faye

1,3
& Wajid Mumtaz
1,2
& Aamir Saeed Malik
1,2
&
Hiroki Sato 4

Received: 31 May 2018 / Revised: 24 November 2018 / Accepted: 30 November 2018 /

Published online: 15 December 2018
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract
Situational interest is widely explored in the psychology and education domains. It is proven to
have positive effect on learning and academic achievement. Nonetheless, not much attention is
given for assessing the feasibility of detecting this interest in natural classroom physiologically.
Therefore, this study investigates the possibility of detecting situational interest using Electro-
encephalogram (EEG) in classroom. After preprocessing of EEG data, they were decomposed
using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). The resulted Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs)
were ranked based on their significance using T-test and Receiver Operator Characteristics
(ROC) in descending order. A matrix was constructed for all participants using the best six
features from four EEG channels. These selected features were fed into Support Vector
Machine (SVM) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifiers with 10 cross validation. While
SVM achieved high accuracy of 93.3% and 87.5% for two data sets using features from the
four EEG channels, KNN classifier achieved high accuracy of 87.5% and 86.7% in the same
datasets using single EEG channel. It is found that gamma and delta bands can be used
successfully to detect situational interest of students during learning in classrooms. Further-
more, data of single EEG channel - F3 in this study- was efficient to detect student’s situational
interest in simultaneous recording of EEG in classroom.

Keywords Electroencephalogram . Classroom . Empirical mode decomposition . Classification .

Situational interest levels

* Areej Babiker
areej555@gmail.com

1
Center for Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research (CISIR), Seri Iskandar, Malaysia
2
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar,
Malaysia
3
Fundamental and Applied Science Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar,
Malaysia
4
Bio-Science and Engineering Department, College of Systems Engineering and Science, Shibaura
Institute of Technology, Saitama, Japan
16262 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

1 Introduction

Situational interest has positive effects on learning and academic achievement. During learning,
interested students learn better and acquire more knowledge than non-interested students [50].
Therefore, many studies were carried out to explain the science of interest development and how
to utilize it for the benefit of learners. Scientists divided interest into personal and situational
interest. The former is a deep-state and last longer and the latter is defined as a momentarily
affective response and focused attention on a triggering task or environmental stimuli that may or
may not last over time [21, 40]. The key difference between the two, is the triggering and lasting
time. While situational interest can be triggered momentarily, individual interest may result from
accumulated experiences and arousing of situational interest [51]. Not surprising, situational
interest effect on learning is widely explored because of the ability to trigger and manipulate
situational interest by educators [21]. Moreover, situational interest is a good motivational variable
[20], it can promote academic achievement and career decisions [17] and predict knowledge
acquisition [50]. Since then, several models were proposed, and many applications were run.
Electroencephalogram (EEG) is widely used modality in Human-commuter Interface (HCI)
applications. It is affordable, comfortable and capable to measure subjectivity in evaluative
scenarios [10]. It measures the brain electrical activity from the scalp and may involve five
frequency bands: delta (0.5–3.5 Hz), theta (4–7 Hz), alpha (8- 12 Hz), beta (13-25 Hz) and
gamma (>25 Hz). Each band has been associated with cognitive and/or emotional processing.
The signals produced by EEG cannot be manipulated by participant unlike questionnaires and
it can be measured without causing interruption to session flow or participant’s attention or
interest. According to [14] EEG result outperformed the traditional questionnaire result while
analyzing learner’s motivation by providing both long and short term analysis. On the contrary,
the questionnaire reflects only the last moment -just before the questionnaire- i.e. short-term
analysis only. Also, student’s engagement during mental task was measured using EEG [10].
To know which are the features that correspond to situational interest, psychological
researches as well as physiological ones should be consulted. For example, from the definition
of interest mentioned above, attention is part of interest phenomena. Large number of studies
reported positive correlation between attention and learning/ knowledge gain e.g. [9, 11] but
the question is how to stimulate and induce this attention willingly and effortlessly in students.
Situational interest could be the key. Hidi in [19] suggests that the interest evokes spontaneous
selective allocation of attention that results in reduction of cognitive capacity and effort
required for learning. For example, when someone is interested at something, they pay
attention to learn and know more about it which explains the importance of attention for other
cognitive processes to occur. In this regard, it is common in the literature to use beta and alpha
ratio or their respective energy to represent interest, attention or attentiveness [36, 58]. On the
contrary, little attention is given to other bands e.g. gamma waves. Gamma wave is known to
increase with cognitive tasks e.g. attention [13] and is expected to be dominant during visual
stimuli. The increase of gamma during cognitive processes like perception, memory and
attention could mean that gamma enhancement reflect the activation of internal object
representations [30]. Moreover, it is suggested that activation of gamma 30–40 Hz after
stimulus presentation may reflect the integration of these local visual information [49]. During
attentional processing, the synchronization of alpha wave is thought to reduce [59]. Liu et al.
[36] suggested the use of the ratio of alpha energy over beta energy to detect the attention of
students during language learning lessons because of the interrelations between alpha and beta
in a sense that the increase in alpha and decrease in beta indicates relaxation state.
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16263

On the other hand, in contrast to the superficial idea about delta band that it is an indication
of deep sleep or unconscious, many researchers found a positive relationship between partic-
ipant’s attention to internal processing during mental task and an increase in delta band [18]. A
recent review [16] showed that delta oscillatory is associated with cognitive (mainly decision-
making and attentional processing) and emotional process and that the decrease in this
oscillation could indicate cognitive dysfunction e.g. bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. The
presence of gamma and delta band could indicate the presence of mental and cognitive
processing.
Shen et al. [54] described interest as one of eight basic learning emotions in their affective
learning model. However, it was not included in their final classification model. Interest was
also regarded as an academic emotion, along with confidence, excitement, and frustration in
[2] and had accuracy of 92% when combining computer mouse features and EEG in intelligent
tutoring system using multi-layer perceptron (MLP). Other studies have studied students’
interest in learning in terms of positive emotions displayed in class. For example, [39] studied
student interest in learning science by studying four emotions, namely happiness, fear, sadness,
and calm.
Feature classification holds same importance in HCI as feature extraction. In HCI, a
good algorithm is used to extract the most relevant features from the acquired data and
these features are then fed into a classifier to recognize the user’s intent [47]. A
combination of Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Support Vector Machine
(SVM) for analyzing and classifying EEG data is common in the literature [8, 34],
because both the EMD and SVM works well with non-stationary data such as EEG.
EMD effectively analyses nonstationary and nonlinear data such as EEG. It is direct,
intuitive, adaptive and decomposes the EEG signal into its Intrinsic Mode Functions
(IMFs) so that all these IMFs components satisfy the condition imposed on them [24].
The use of EMD for analyzing neural data is promising because it has superiority over
simple methods such as Fourier analysis by providing better temporal and frequency
resolution [35]. SVM on the other hand, is an easy to implement algorithm specially for
non-experts and have plenty of free resources and toolboxes which explain its numerous
implementation in HCI researches. Its robustness and versatility make it preferable for
classification of non-stationary data.
Considering that learning in classrooms is the dominant teaching method thus far, there is a
lack in the literature about the detection of situational interest specially in classroom learning
domain. Promotion of situational interest in classroom could be an alternative for alarm
mechanisms that are currently proposed for focusing and sustaining students attention e.g.
[11]. Furthermore, several physiological studies reported the detection of interest during
learning without detailing on whether the detected interest is a personal or situational interest
while they are significantly different as aforementioned.
To our best knowledge, this is the first study that investigates precisely the detection of
situational interest in natural classroom settings using EEG. Gamma and delta bands are not
given much attention when it comes to detection of learner’s interest compared to alpha and
beta bands. In addition, detecting situational interest could be a faster and less complicated tool
to assess student’s performance during classrooms and feedback this information immediately
to lecturers to improve their teaching strategies that could enhance the students learning. Using
physiological sensors for this sake, specifically EEG is an efficient way to assess student’s
performance without interrupting the classes or lecture flow [46]. Hence, this work aims to
investigate the feasibility of using EEG in natural classrooms to detect situational interest of
16264 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

students during learning. The study also examines whether gamma band is suitable for this
purpose. The performance efficiency is explored in two situations, 1) using six EEG channels,
and 2) using one EEG channel for efficient detection of situational interest using KNN and
SVM classifiers.
This paper is structured as following: section 2 discusses the experimental procedure, data
acquisition, the methods used and preprocessing of the data. Section 3 presents the behavioral
result and the comparison between using six EEG channels and one EEG channel. Section 4
discusses these results obtained, study limitation and future work and section 5 concludes the
paper.

2 Materials and methods

This section describes the participants information, stimuli and the data acquisition process. It
also describes the pre-processing of the acquired EEG data and the methods used to extract the
features. Moreover, the classification algorithms are briefly introduced.

2.1 Participants

The participants of this experiment were students in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP)
foundation and first-year undergraduate students. The experimental procedure was approved
by UTP Ethical Committee. The participants were selected based on a questionnaire regarding
joining mathematics club in the university which was distributed to foundation and first-year
undergraduate students. The questionnaire was run as a pre-evaluation for the level of
personal/ individual interest of students and hence a balanced group with high, low and
moderate interest participants were selected. Recent studies showed no significant differences
between females and males in terms of academic performance e.g. [41, 43] and therefore was
not considered in this study. Overall 43 students (5 females) participated in this experiment.
Selected participants were notified through emails and thoroughly briefed about the experi-
ment. Three classroom experiments were run with each experiment divided into two sessions.
Maximum number of participants per session was ten. In each session, 16 to 22 min presen-
tation was delivered by UTP lecturers who teach similar courses in the university. Experiment
1 presentation was from Calculus course for foundation participants while experiment 2 and 3
were from Ordinary Differential Equation course for first-year undergraduate students. Con-
sent form was signed by all participants and they were briefed about the experiment settings
and procedure beforehand.

2.2 Stimuli

A lecture on Laplace transform (duration 22 min) was designed and presented in an interesting
way to first-year undergraduate students. This was done by relating the materials to everyday
life through a careful selection of a Laplace applications and maintaining a meaningful content
throughout the 22 min of the presentation. Using colors, fonts, shapes and pictures along with
the animation to facilitate presenting the contents was helpful. A brief history of Laplace
transform was added to the original lecture. The presentation slideshow was sent to experts for
improvement and feedback. It was then tested with different students to rate the interesting
points and improve the slides further. The novelty of the content i.e. being new to participants,
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16265

was ensured by selecting participants who have not taken the course before. These steps were
followed for calculus lecture that was presented to foundation students.
To test the effect of these stimuli during the experiments, a six-Likert type questionnaire
was run at the end of each session followed by a verbal, non-formal interview. The assessments
result was positive, that is for Laplace transform 83.34% agree that the presentation was
interesting, and all participants agree that they look forward for similar lectures which
confirmed the interestingness of the stimulation. Figure 1 shows the experiment block
diagram.
It is to be noted that the original idea of the experiment was to present the lecture in two
ways: interesting and non-interesting. This idea resulted in interested and non-interested
students in both interesting and non-interesting lectures which complicated the analysis by
increasing the variation. Therefore, the idea of the experiment was modified to have one
lecture presented in interesting way. In this case, we have only interested and non-interested
students in one lecture.

2.3 Data acquisition

Upon the arrival of participants and signing of the consent form, pre-knowledge test and
Individual interest questionnaire were undertaken. The pre-knowledge test was performed to
ensure a low to no knowledge about the presented topic and to confirm the level of individual
interest. Then, participants wore Enobio EEG caps with 8 channels, dry sensors, sampling
frequency: 500 Hz, simultaneously (Fig. 2, Table 1) with researcher’s assistance and were
ought to speak to the researchers if they felt unconformable and were told that they can leave
the experiment at any time. After that, baseline data of 4 min eyes opened and 4 min eyes
closed were acquired followed by about 22 min of lecture. The presentation was delivered
through projector to a projector screen. After the EEG recording, Situational Interest (SI)
questionnaire and post-knowledge test were undertaken. The post-knowledge test (which has
the same questions of the pre-knowledge test) was performed to evaluate the acquired
knowledge from the lecture. At the end of the lecture, a presentation questionnaire was
distributed to evaluate the interestingness of the topic and the interesting points in the lecture.
Each participant was compensated for their time with 25RM (for experiment 1 that had 16 min
presentation) or 40RM (for experiment 2 and 3 that had around 22 min presentation).

Fig. 1 Experiment Block Diagram. PI Q: Personal interest questionnaire, EC: Eyes-closed; EO: Eyes-opened;
Learning content: Calculus for foundation and ODE for undergraduate participants; SI Q: Situational interest
questionnaire; Pre-test: Pre-knowledge test; Post-test: Post-knowledge test; Presentation questionnaire: to eval-
uate the interesting points in each learning content
16266 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

For exp.1 & exp.2

Fig. 2 During experiment: (a) Subjects seating during experiment (b) Channels location according to Interna-
tional 10–20 system

Experiments 2 and 3 had the same conditions, hence, they are treated as one experiment
hereon. Enobio EEG cap provides the option of selecting the channels. Although the brain
regions work together during individuals’ activities, some functions can be related to certain
brain region. Therefore, the selected eight channels for this experiment reflects the focus of this
study which is on student’s interest during classroom learning. Frontal region is well known in
investigating mental workload [55] cognition and emotions [33], temporal region for memory
and emotions [26, 33], parietal and occipital for visual attention [56]. Note that Experiment 3
has used O1 and O2 channels instead of Pz and P4 and the reason was that the authors were
not sure which location will provide optimum classification result. On one hand, many studies
addressed parietal lobe when assessing mental workload e.g. Pz channel alone was used
successfully to assess mental workload with accuracy of 88% [22]. On the other hand, occipital
lobe that controls our sight must be considered when it comes to visual stimuli as the case in
this study. This will be further elaborated on in the following sections.

2.4 Data processing

Total of (8) subjects’ data were removed (3 from exp1, 5 from exp2) because of technical
errors that occurred during EEG recording and these errors were not related to subject’s
behavior. These errors either caused faulty EEG data embedded with DC components or
corrupted EEG file, and therefore were not appropriate for analysis.
The obtained EEG data were then filtered using FIR filter with low frequency of 1 Hz and
high frequency of 40 Hz. Drift was corrected, and notch filter of 50 Hz was applied to remove
line noise. After that EEG data for each experiment was segmented based on the interesting
points during presentation e.g. solved examples, history, real life application, challenge

Table 1 Experiments details

Experiment Number of Record time Presentation title EEG Channels

subjects
EO EC Record

Experiment 1 Foundation, 13 3 min 3 min 16 min Sequences (Calculus) Fp1, Fp2, F3, F4, T7,
T8, Pz and P4
Experiment 2 Undergraduate, 19 4 min 4 min 22 min Laplace Transform (ODE) Fp1, Fp2, F3, F4, T7,
T8, Pz and P4
Experiment 3 Undergraduate, 11 4 min 4 min 21 min Laplace Transform (ODE) Fp1, Fp2, F3, F4, T7,
T8, O1 and O2
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16267

question. These points were selected based on a 6-likert questionnaire and informal interview
at the end of each experiment to know the most interesting points for each participant. For
experiment 1: 2 min from the introduction +2 min from real life examples +2 min from
problems and solutions = 6 min (360 s) out of the 16 min presentation. For experiment 2: 470 s
out of 22 min presentation and experiment 3: 410 s out of 21 min presentation. It is noted that
segments length varies across experiments due to variation of experiments lengths.

2.5 Feature extraction and selection

In this study, EMD was used to extract the features of EEG signals. EMD assumes that every
data is consisted of number of intrinsic mode oscillations which basis oscillation is derived
from the data. The resulted oscillations or decompositions are independent of each other and
might be linear or non-linear with the same number of extrema and zero crossings [24, 25].
Hence, each is considered intrinsic mode function (IMF) following: (1): the number of extrema
and zero-crossings must equal or differ by one; (2): the mean value of local maxima envelop
and local minima envelop is equal to zero. These IMF values can be generated as following:

1. Produce the upper envelop by identifying all the local extrema and connect them all by a
cubic spline line.
2. Produce the lower envelop by repeating step 1 for the local minima.

The mean of the upper and lower envelops m1 is used to produce the first component, h1:
X ðtÞ−m1 ¼ h1 ð1Þ
This procedure is repeated by subtracting the new h from the mean to many times as is
required to reduce the extracted signal to an IMF:
h1 ðk−1Þ −m1k ¼ h1k ð2Þ

Then produces the first IMF from the data:

c1 ¼ h1k ð3Þ
This c1 is separated from the rest of the data by:
X ðtÞ−c1 ¼ r1 ð4Þ
Once the residue signal r becames monotonic or less than the predetermined value of
substantial consequences this sifting process will stop to finally obtain:
X ðtÞ ¼ ∑nj¼1 c j þ rn ð5Þ

Thus, the decomposition is achieved by having n empirical modes and one residue rn that
reflects constant value or the average trend of X(t). It is to be noted that each decomposed
signal differs in the number of empirical modes.
By applying the EMD for each subject’s data for eight channels, 64 IMFs were obtained (8
IMFs per channel). Then, T-test and ROC were applied to rank these IMFs features based on
significant differences between high and low interested subjects. Applying this feature selec-
tion method is essential to reduce redundancy of features and as a result reduce dimensionality
of the data which improve significantly the classifier’s performance and increase the detection
16268 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

accuracy. The flow chart for the procedure of feature extraction and selection is summarized in
Fig. 3.

2.6 SVM and KNN classifiers

Considering EEG data features’ properties, the selection of classifier is of great importance to
overcome the weaknesses and enhance the strengths of a proposed algorithm. A good classifier
encodes the features to output the corresponding classes with minimum misclassification rate.
SVM is a discriminative classifier that learns how to discriminate the two classes and classify
directly a feature vector [37]. SVM is widely used in BCI and HCI applications because of its
simplicity and insensitivity to high dimensionality and to overtraining. It is also flexible in a
sense that adding Bkernel trick^ to create non-linear decision boundaries. Because of its
regularization, it works better and overcome noise and outliers. SVM has different types e.g.
linear kernel, polynomial (Poly) kernel and radial basis function (RBF) kernel and the choice
of the appropriate type depends on the application as in [60] where the Poly kernel surpassed
the linear and RBF kernel regardless of the data size. For more details about the application of
SVM for EEG data see [47]. In this study, linear kernel function was used.
On the other hand, KNN is a discriminant classifier but is less popular in BCI and HCI
researches compared to SVM because its highly sensitive when it comes to data dimension-
ality and training samples. It classifies an unseen point in the training set based on the
dominant class of the nearest neighbors in that set. By manipulating the k values, KNN can
produce a nonlinear decision boundary.

3 Results

In this section, the results obtained by following the above described methods, are discussed. It
is divided into three subsections: behavioral data, using six EEG channels and using one EEG
channel.

Fig. 3 Flow chart feature extraction and selection method

Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16269

Based on SI questionnaire result, the subjects scored ≥77 were considered high situationally
interested while subjects with score ≤ 59 were considered low interested. This threshold was
determined experimentally and had the optimum result when compared to other scenarios.
Bearing in mind that the lectures used in these experiments were presented in interesting way,
thus, it is expected to have relatively moderate scores of SI for low interested participants. The
lowest SI score was 33 (only one response) while majority of low interested scores fell
between 45 and 59. Subjects scored between 60 and 76 were considered to have moderate
interest and therefore were not classified.
After preparing the data, the relevant features were extracted. These features represent
situational interest in individuals during learning in classroom regardless of the materials
presented or the lecturer presenting them. The challenging side however, is that each partic-
ipant can provide only one condition, either high situationally interested or low situationally
interested. Therefore, the comparison between high and low interested participants needs to
account for inter and intra subject variation.
Experiment 2 and experiment 3 were combined for result and analysis as aforementioned to
take advantage of high number of subjects in order to have robust algorithm and result.

3.1 Behavioral data

Let’s start by examining the behavioral data which are post knowledge tests and SI question-
naire. For the sake of simplicity, all scores were presented in percentage form. Figures 4 and 5
are showing the situational interest for each student with their respective post—knowledge test
result for exp.1 and exp.2&3 respectively. The line indicates situational interest while the bars
indicates the student’s post-knowledge test.
It is to be noted, that for exp1, pre-knowledge test result was high for majority of
participants (3 of them scored 100%) while in Exp2& 3 all participants had 0% in pre-
knowledge test except for two. This explains why the overall SI range is lower in exp.1 than
exp.2&3. That is, the pre-knowledge that the participants of exp.1 had about the topic reduced
their situational interest. It is discussed by [50] that situational interest decreases with the
increase in knowledge. Nevertheless, Figs. 4 and 5, shows the overall linear relationship

100.00% 100.00%
POST-KNOWLEDGE TEST (%)

80.00% 80.00%

60.00% 60.00%
SI (%)

40.00% 40.00%

20.00% 20.00%

0.00% 0.00%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
PARTICIPANTS

Fig. 4 Situational interest and post-knowledge test results for experiment 1

16270 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

100.00% 100.00%

80.00% 80.00%

POST-KNOWLEDGE TEST (%)

60.00% 60.00%
SI (%)

40.00% 40.00%

20.00% 20.00%

0.00% 0.00%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
PARTICIPANTS

Fig. 5 Situational interest and post-knowledge test results for experiment 2 & 3

between SI and post-test for the three experiments. This relationship is clearer in exp.2&3
where majority of the highest post-knowledge test scores had high SI value.
The correlation between post-knowledge test and situational interest in exp.1 and exp.2&3
was: r = 0.489 and r = 0.299 respectively which indicates moderate positive relationship. That
is, the increase in situational interest has a positive effect on post-knowledge test. This is in line
with the previous research that proved the positive correlation between situational interest and
academic achievement.

3.2 Using six EEG channels

The purpose of this part is to define common physiological features that can discriminate high
situationally interested students from low interested ones. Considering the number of partic-
ipants, along this section, exp.2&3 (which -together- have higher number of participants) are
used for training the model while exp.1 is used to validated it.
Another point, the experiments had different visual cortex channels (exp.1 and exp.2 had Pz
and P4 channels while exp.3 had O1 and O2 channels) hence, channel 7 and 8 were excluded
from the three experiments in the analysis of this part only. Remained common channels Fp1,
Fp2, F3, F4, T7 and T8. Doing that, enlarged the training set by allowing the use of all the data
(exp.2&3) for one algorithm. Pre-processed EEG data were decomposed as in Fig. 3 using
EMD into 48 IMFs for 6 channels. Figure 6 shows IMFs values for one subject. The IMFs
were then ranked based on the significance difference between the high and low classes for
exp2&3 with total of 15 subjects (10 highly interested) using two methods: T-test and receiver
operator characteristics (ROC). After that, 6 features that had the highest significant differences
were selected out of the 48 which are: IMF1 from Fp1, IMF2 from Fp1, IMF2 from FP2, IMF1
from F3, IMF2 from T7 and IMF7 fromT8.
Finally, a matrix of 15 (number of subjects) X 8 (number of features +1 column for labels)
were fed directly to KNN and SVM classifiers with 10 cross validation. By this, one objective
of this study is achieved here which is a fast and efficient features classification algorithm. This
is accomplished by the direct feeding of the selected features to classifiers (i.e. without further
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16271

Fig. 6 The EEG of High situationally interested subject from experiment 1 and the respective 8 IMFs
components (amplitude in μV) from Fp1 channel

feature extraction) which led to reduction of complexity and time required for processing. This
is performed simultaneously for all classroom participants.
The same channels with their respective IMFs were applied to subjects of experiment 1, 8
subjects (3 Hi interested) for validation. Results of classifiers performance are shown in
Table 2.
Several points were found here: first, four out of the six channels were from the left
hemisphere which might indicate the positive emotion occurred with existence of situational
interest [48]. If we look at the situational interest from the motivational approach-withdrawal
hypothesis model as an approach system- because the interested individual will have the BI
want Bresponse unlike the withdrawal system that is associated with BI do not want^ response
[20]- one can consider Peterson et al. [45] note that there is evidence for a relationship between
greater left frontal activation and approach motivation. The difference between frontal left and
right hemispheres activation was used to detect interest in advertisement by [58]. Second,
IMF1, IMF2 and IMF7 were selected from these channels. IMF1 represent high gamma wave,
while IMF2 represent low gamma and probably high beta and IMF7 represent low frequency

Table 2 The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for exp.1 and exp.2&3 using 6 features

Experiment No. of subjects Sensitivity (%) Specificity (%) Accuracy (%)

SVM KNN SVM KNN SVM KNN

Experiment 2&3 15 (10 High-interested) 90 50 100 60 93.33 53.3

Experiment 1 8 (3 High-interested) 66.7 33.3 100 66.7 87.5 62.5
16272 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

waves typically below 3 Hz which is delta wave [23]. No wonder, majority of signal features
are represented by the first IMF as noted in several studies. Though gamma and delta wave are
well-known according to the literature in representing attentional state and internal processes,
they are rarely used in the detection of interest research. A second objective of this study is
achieved here by shedding more light into the role of gamma and delta in the research of
interest on learning and proving their efficiency by the high accuracy achieved with these
power bands that reached 93.3% and 87.5% for training and validation sets respectively for
classification of high and low interested students. In addition, the reduction of features led by
data-driven nature (features causing significant difference) is supplementing the ground truth
provided by participant’s ratings.
SVM achieved significantly higher accuracy than KNN in this case. The reason could be
the differences in the IMFs values. Here IMF1 and IMF7 were utilized and they are of different
band power: gamma and delta respectively. While the flexible SVM can draw a perfect line
between both classes depending on these features, KNN depends on the nearest neighbours to
classify the two classes (high and low interested participants).

3.3 Using one EEG channel

The result from previous section encouraged to further investigate the feasibility of using only
one channel to detect situational interest in students during learning. A new challenge now is to
detect and classify user’s data with the low possible number of channels. For this, each
experiment was examined separately to extract the common channel that can achieve optimum
result. The same flow in Fig. 2 was used for experiment 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The 4 best
features were selected from each experiment as shown in Table 3 below.
High accuracy is achieved across all experiments when considered separately as shown in
Table 3. The reason is because of the stimulation similarity in a single experiment were all the
subjects attend the same content. Another point is the parieto-occipital presence (P4 in
experiment 1 and 2, and O2 in experiment 3). According to the significance ranking performed
using T-test and ROC, F3 and P4/O2, was ranked first or second as most significant difference
between high and low interested participants. This could be explained in previous research that
suggested the activation of parietal lobe as a highly distinctive feature for determining the level
of attention [42]. It was also suggested that frontal and parietal lobes are active during
arithmetic operations [1] which is part of this experiment stimulation. A third point to notice
is the temporal lobe with left and right brain hemispheres. Its holding the primary auditory
cortex and therefore, responsible for semantic knowledge and comprehension of visual and
audio stimuli [3] which is represented in our experiment by the presentation (audio-visual) and
the lecturer (language). it is concluded from this tabulated result that F3 is the common channel

Table 3 SVM and KNN classification result for experiments: 1, 2 and 3 using four features

Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Experiment 3

F3 F3 O2
P4 P4 F3
T8 T8 T7
Fp2 F4 Fp1
Accuracy Accuracy Accuracy
SVM:100% KNN:90% SVM:85.7% KNN:78.6% SVM:100% KNN:90.9%
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16273

despite the differences between subjects and conditions. Therefore, the intrinsic functions of
this channel were examined to determine the best representation for situational interest using
the flow described in Fig. 2 we started with exp.2&3 first and based on T-test and ROC
ranking, 3 IMFs form the 8 IMFs of F3 channel were selected. Then, accuracy was determined
using SVM and KNN while reducing the feature each time as shown in Table 4.
As shown in the above table the accuracy is high using KNN which indicates that one channel
(F3 here) could be sufficient to detect situational interest during classroom learning. However,
KNN result was not as high. This result was validated using exp.1 as shown in Table 5.
In this case, the result was high for both classifiers SVM and KNN with SVM achieving
100% when using IMF1 and IMF4. The reason of a difference between these two experiments
is further explained by Table 6.
Table 6 is showing high specificity compared to sensitivity when the accuracy is low.
Sensitivity here means the true high-interested over the total actual high interested while the
specificity means the true low-interested over the total actual low interested. It seems that the
algorithm is better in classifying the low-interested compared to high-interested. Let’s consider
this and have a look again at tables above. The number of high-interested participants is 10 in
exp.2&3 while its 3 in exp.1 which explains the higher accuracy for the algorithm in exp.1
compared to exp. 2 & 3. From Table 6 the IMF1 and IMF4 achieved the higher accuracy for
training and validation sets i.e. exp2&3 and exp.1 respectively using KNN classifier. One may
select IMF1 and IMF4 if the aim is to reduce number of features while keeping high accuracy.
Furthermore, Table 2 is showing high accuracy for SVM when multiple features are used
form different channels and different EEG powers while Table 6 is showing better result for
KNN when using single channel and less number of features.

4 Discussion

The focus of this study is on situational interest in mathematical courses. The stimuli
(presented lectures) included mathematical problems and their solutions (either integration or
Laplace transformation). They also contained integration and Laplace transformation tables,
histories and applications as mentioned earlier in materials and method section. Hence, each of
the human learning and information processing resources such as: mental workload, attention,
working memory and internal brain processes [38] have a role to play. Considering the stimuli
used in this experiment, the feasibility of using F3 channel with gamma, alpha and delta waves
to detect situational interest is discussed.
There are several advantages of using single channel (F3 in this case) for the detection of
situational interest in learning in classrooms. It is easy, user friendly, comfortable and time-
efficient to use a single channel and at the same time maintain a high accuracy. According to

Table 4 SVM and KNN classification result for exp.2&3 using F3 channels’ features

No. of IMFs Features Accuracy (%)

SVM KNN

3 IMFs F3 IMF1, F3 IMF4, F3 IMF8 66.7 86.7

2 IMFs F3 IMF1, F3 IMF4 66.7 86.7
I IMF F3 IMF1 60 86.7
16274 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

Table 5 SVM and KNN classification result for exp.1 using F3 channels’ features

No. of IMFs Features Accuracy (%)

SVM KNN

3 IMFs F3 IMF1, F3 IMF4, F3 IMF8 87.5 87.5

2 IMFs F3 IMF1, F3 IMF4 100 87.5
I IMF F3 IMF1 100 87.5

the reviewed literature, F3 is one of the preferred locations to measure the decrease in alpha
wave during attentional task compared to relaxation state [53, 61]. Furthermore, F3 was
reported to have higher amplitude for the peak frequency of power spectrum in high interested
students compared to low interested students during learning [4]. Frontal lobe was reported to
be active during arithmetic operations [15]. F3 is one of the preferred positions when it comes
to mental workload measurement [28]. Prefrontal cortex is primary responsible for attention
and higher-order function [57]. The position of F3 according to 10–20 system is located on the
left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) [7] which is in many researches associated with
working memory that is essential for learning and manipulating information by keeping these
information in highly active and accessible state [5, 31]. It was found that DLPFC activity was
higher during learning task and it decreased by the time subjects leant [29]. DLPFC is
confirmed essential for executive attention [31] and has been proved to help individuals to
optimize the long-term value with regard to immediate value during intertemporal choice i.e.
better long-term over worse immediate [12] which could mean self-regularization during
learning process.
It is noticed from the result that IMF1 and IMF4 and IMF8 had the most significant
correlation. IMF1 according to literature carries most of signal information and thought to
represent gamma band with frequency range above 30 Hz, IMF4 alpha band with frequency
band around 8 Hz while the least frequency components (below 3.5 Hz) starting from IMF6
represent delta band [23]. Gamma wave is modulated by processes such as attention and
working memory which both are expected to occur during interesting situation [27]. In
working memory and learning, gamma band is expected to raise [6, 44] and in fact, it is
positively correlated with engaged network. That is, it indicates the presence of a new neural
network pathway resulted from neurons binding as described in [32] who reported positive
correlation between gamma wave (40 Hz) and the BAha!^ moments. Moreover, The alpha
decrease is associated in literature with greater cortical excitation specially during problem
solving and learning task [52].
Using EMD features reduced model complexity and therefore computational time required
before feeding the features to the classifiers. Furthermore, it shortened the time taken by the
classifiers to output the result for multiple students at the same time while maintaining a good
accuracy. Using single EEG channels is preferred over multiple channels to reduce the
dimensionality of features vector. This low dimensionality obtained enabled the algorithm to
achieve 100% accuracy [37]. It is always good to have small number of features that represent
significant discrimination between classes. In general EEG data are non-stationary and highly
sensitive, therefore, different data from different experiments could cause relatively EEG
differences and this explains the slight difference in classifiers accuracies between experiment
1 and experiment 2 & 3. However, this difference tested successfully the stability of the
proposed algorithm.
Table 6 The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for exp.1 and exp.2&3 using different IMFs

Exp. Sensitivity (%) Specificity (%) Accuracy (%)

KNN SVM KNN SVM KNN SVM

No. of IMFs No. of IMFs No. of IMFs No. of IMFs No. of IMFs No. of IMFs
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1

Exp.2&3 90 90 90 50 50 40 80 80 80 100 100 100 86.7 86.7 86.7 66.7 66.7 60

Exp.1 66.7 66.7 66.7 66.7 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 87.5 87.5 87.5 87.5 100 100
16275
16276 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

The results described above confirmed that this algorithm is participant-independent. That
is, the results could be generalized for new participants. In addition, the findings of this study
supports earlier findings by the authors [4] in similar classroom experiment for image
processing lecture, that F3 channel could discriminate between high and low situationally
interested students. The findings from the two experiments suggest that the brain activities
caused by situational interest during image processing lecture or mathematics lecture could be
of similar characteristics. Nevertheless, there are some limitations for this study. Though the
sample size was sufficient for this study, increasing it is needed to further test the proposed
method. It is suggested to extract more features from those single IMFs to increase the
accuracy. Third point, some differences between the attention of interest and the attention in
other tasks in terms of direct and spontaneous selective allocation of attention need to be
further investigated.

5 Conclusions

Increasing students’ situational interest during learning focuses their attention and therefore
maximizes their learning and knowledge gain. Assessing the performance of these students in
terms of high and low situational interest and feeding back this information to lecturers and
educators helps them to improve their teaching strategies in a way that triggers and maintain
students’ interest in the classroom. High interested students are expected to have more
attention, working memory and engagement in the presented material compared to low
interested students. Therefore, change in EEG power bands is expected to occur particularly
in frontal and parietal lobe channels. Empirical mode decomposition method was effective in
decomposing the EEG signal in order to identify these significant power bands. This step is
critical to improve the classification accuracy by selecting only the significant IMF from the
decomposed signal for classification. Moreover, it reduced the dimensionality of the feature
vector and eliminated redundancy. IMF1, IMF2 and IMF7 which represent gamma high beta
and delta bands were extracted from 4 EEG channels using EMD. The selection of these bands
was based on T-test rating for all the IMFs and only the top ones were fed into SVM classifier
that achieved 93.33% and 87.5 accuracies in two different datasets. In addition, a fast and
efficient method that uses a single EEG channel -F3- achieved high accuracy of 86.5% and
87.5% for those two datasets using SVM. This result suggests the feasibility of detecting
situational interest in natural classroom experiments and support the use of the gamma band
for this purpose. It also suggests the possibility of a real-time monitoring of student’s
situational interest in classroom and consider this research as a step toward it. Future research
should focus more on the frontal channels (F3, F4) and the parietal and occipital channels (P4
and O2) to study the effect of interest during learning on students’ brain activities. Further-
more, assessing the SI level of students several times during the lecture gives accurate idea
about any fluctuation of interest level and therefore better classification accuracy.

Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for the advices given by Suzanne Hidi, Ulrich Schiefele and
Mathew Mitchell at the beginning of experimental phase. The authors would like to thank the assistant
researchers during the experiments for their effort in assuring simultaneous EEG recording from all participants.
Extended thanks to Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS for the given Graduate Assistantship.

Funding This research was funded partially by a grant from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for
HiCoE for CISIR [0153CA-002].
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16277

Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

References

1. Ayvaz Ü, Yaman H, Mersin N, Yilmaz Y, Durmuş S (2017) The perspectives of primary mathematics
teacher candidates about equal sign: the EEG case. Univ J Educ Res 5(12A):111–120
2. Azcarraga J, Suarez MT (2013) Recognizing student emotions using brainwaves and mouse behavior data.
Int J Distance Educ Technol 11(2):1–15. https://doi.org/10.4018/jdet.2013040101
3. Baars BJ, Gage NM (2010) Chapter 5 - the brain. In: Cognition, brain, and consciousness, Second edn.
Academic Press, London, pp 126–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375070-9.00005-X
4. Babiker A, Faye I, Malik A Investigation of situational interest effects on learning using physiological
sensors: Preliminary result. In: 2016 6th International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems
(ICIAS), 15–17 Aug. 2016 2016. pp 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIAS.2016.7824075
5. Barbey AK, Koenigs M, Grafman J (2013) Dorsolateral prefrontal contributions to human working
memory. Cortex; J Devot Study Nervous Syst Behav 49(5):1195–1205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
cortex.2012.05.022
6. Bauer EP, Paz R, Paré D (2007) Gamma oscillations coordinate Amygdalo-Rhinal interactions during
learning. J Neurosci 27(35):9369
7. Beam W, Borckardt JJ, Reeves ST, George MS (2009) An efficient and accurate new method for locating
the F3 position for prefrontal TMS applications. Brain Stimul 2(1):50–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
brs.2008.09.006
8. Biju KS, Hakkim HA, Jebucumar MG (2017) Ictal EEG classification based on amplitude and frequency
contours of IMFs. Biocybernet Biomed Eng 37(1):172–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbe.2016.12.005
9. Börner D, Kalz M, Specht M (2014) Lead me gently: facilitating knowledge gain through attention-ware
ambient learning displays. Comput Educ 78:10–19
10. Cernea D, Olech P, Ebert A, Kerren A (2011) EEG-Based Measurement of Subjective Parameters in
Evaluations. In: C. S (ed) HCI International 2011 - posters' Extended Abstracts. HCI 2011. Communciations
in Computer and Information Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidlberg
11. Chen C-M, Wang J-Y (2017) Effects of online synchronous instruction with an attention monitoring and
alarm mechanism on sustained attention and learning performance. Interact Learn Environ 26(4):427–443.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2017.1341938
12. Essex BG, Clinton SA, Wonderley LR, Zald DH (2012) The impact of the posterior parietal and dorsolateral
prefrontal cortices on the optimization of Long-term versus immediate value. J Neurosci 32(44):15403
13. Fries P, Reynolds JH, Rorie AE, Desimone R (2001) Modulation of oscillatory neuronal synchronization by
selective visual attention. Science 291(5508):1560–1563. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1055465
14. Ghergulescu I, Muntean CH (2014) A novel sensor-based methodology for Learner's motivation analysis in
game-based learning. Interact Comput 26(4):305–320
15. Gullick MM, Wolford G (2014) Brain Systems involved in arithmetic with positive versus negative
numbers. Hum Brain Mapp 33(2):539–551
16. Güntekin B, Başar E (2016) Review of evoked and event-related delta responses in the human brain. Int J
Psychophysiol 103:43–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.02.001
17. Harackiewicz JM, Hulleman CS (2010) The importance of interest: the role of achievement goals and task
values in promoting the development of interest. Soc Personal Psychol Compass 4(1):42–52. https://doi.
org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00207.x
18. Harmony T, Fernández T, Silva J, Bernal J, Díaz-Comas L, Reyes A, Marosi E, Rodríguez M, Rodríguez M
(1996) EEG delta activity: an indicator of attention to internal processing during performance of mental
tasks. Int J Psychophysiol 24(1):161–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8760(96)00053-0
19. Hidi S (1990) Interest and its contribution as a mental resource for learning. Rev Educ Res 60(4):549–571.
https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543060004549
20. Hidi S (2006) Interest: A unique motivational variable. Educ Res Rev 1(2):69–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
edurev.2006.09.001
21. Hidi S, Renninger KA (2006) The four-phase model of interest development. Educ Psychol 41(2):111–127.
https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4102_4
22. Hogervorst MA, Brouwer A-M, van Erp JBF (2014) Combining and comparing EEG, peripheral physiol-
ogy and eye-related measures for the assessment of mental workload. Front Neurosci 8:322
16278 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

23. Hsu C-H, Lee C-Y, Liang W-K (2016) An improved method for measuring mismatch negativity using
ensemble empirical mode decomposition. J Neurosci Methods 264:78–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jneumeth.2016.02.015
24. Huang NE, Shen Z, Long SR, Wu MC, Shih HH, Zheng Q, Yen N-C, Tung CC, Liu HH (1998) The
empirical mode decomposition and the Hilbert spectrum for nonlinear and non-stationary time series
analysis. Proc R Soc London Ser A: Math, Phys Eng Sci 454(1971):903–995. https://doi.org/10.1098
/rspa.1998.0193
25. Huang NE, Shen Z, Long SR (1999) A new view of nonlinear water waves: the Hilbert spectrum. Annu Rev
Fluid Mech 31:417–457
26. Jeneson A, Squire LR Working memory, long-term memory, and medial temporal lobe function. Learning &
memory (Cold Spring Harbor, NY) 19 (1):15–25. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.024018.111
27. Jia X, Kohn A (2011) Gamma rhythms in the brain. PLoS Biol 9(4):e1001045. https://doi.org/10.1371
/journal.pbio.1001045
28. Jimenez-Molina A, Retamal C, Lira H (2018) Using psychophysiological sensors to assess mental workload
during web browsing. Sensors (Basel) 18(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020458
29. Jones R (2001) Learning by the rules. Nat Rev Neurosci 2:760. https://doi.org/10.1038/35097503
30. Kaiser J, Hertrich I, Ackermann H, Lutzenberger W (2006) Gamma-band activity over early sensory areas
predicts detection of changes in audiovisual speech stimuli. NeuroImage 30(4):1376–1382. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.10.042
31. Kane MJ, Engle RW (2002) The role of prefrontal cortex in working-memory capacity, executive attention,
and general fluid intelligence: an individual-differences perspective. Psychon Bull Rev 9(4):637–671.
https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196323
32. Kounios J, Beeman M (2009) The Aha! Moment: the cognitive neuroscience of insight. Curr Dir Psychol
Sci 18(4):210–216. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01638.x
33. Kumfor F, Irish M, Hodges JR, Piguet O (2014) Frontal and temporal lobe contributions to emotional
enhancement of memory in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Front
Behav Neurosci 8(225). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00225
34. Li S, Zhou W, Yuan Q, Geng S, Cai D (2013) Feature extraction and recognition of ictal EEG using EMD
and SVM. Comput Biol Med 43(7):807–816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2013.04.002
35. Liang H, Bressler SL, Desimone R, Fries P (2005) Empirical mode decomposition: a method for analyzing
neural data. Neurocomputing 65-66:801–807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2004.10.077
36. Liu NH, Chiang CY, Chu HC (2013) Recognizing the degree of human attention using EEG signals from
mobile sensors. Sensors (Basel) 13(8):10273–10286. https://doi.org/10.3390/s130810273
37. Lotte F, Congedo M, Lécuyer A, Lamarche F, Arnaldi B (2007) A review of classification algorithms for
EEG-based brain–computer interfaces. J Neural Eng 4(2):R1
38. Matthews G, Warm JS, Smith AP (2017) Task engagement and attentional resources. Hum Factors J Hum
Factors Ergon Soc 59:44–61
39. Md Nor N, Bar AW, Shaikh Salleh SH (2013) Correlation of Student’s precursor emotion towards learning
science interest using EEG. Telkomnika 13(4):1162–1169
40. Mitchell M (1993) Situational interest: its multifaceted structure in the secondary school mathematics
classroom. J Educ Psychol 85(3):424–436. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.85.3.424
41. Moldovan AN, Ghergulescu I, Muntean CH (2017) Analysis of learner interest, QoE and EEG-based
affective states in multimedia Mobile learning. IEEE 17th Int Conf Adv Learn Technol (ICALT) 2017:398–
402. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2017.93
42. Myrden A, Chau (2017) A Passive EEG-BCI for Single-Trial Detection of Changes in Mental State. IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING https://doi.
org/10.1109/TNSRE.2016.2641956
43. Okafor C, Egbon O (2011) Academic performance of male versus female accounting undergraduate
students: evidence from Nigeria. Higher Educ Stud 1(1)
44. Pesaran B, Pezaris JS, Sahani M, Mitra PP, Andersen RA (2002) Temporal structure in neuronal activity
during working memory in macaque parietal cortex. Nat Neurosci 5:805. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn890
https://www.nature.com/articles/nn890#supplementary-information
45. Peterson CK, Shackman AJ, Harmon-Jones E (2008) The role of asymmetrical frontal cortical activity in
aggression. Psychophysiology 45(1):86–92
46. Poulsen AT, Kamronn S, Dmochowski J, Parra LC, Hansen LK (2017) EEG in the classroom: synchronised
neural recordings during video presentation. Sci Rep 7:43916. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep43916
47. Quitadamo LR, Cavrini F, Sbernini L, Riillo F, Bianchi L, Seri S, Saggio G (2017) Support vector machines
to detect physiological patterns for EEG and EMG-based human–computer interaction: a review. J Neural
Eng 14(1):011001
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16279

48. Root JC, Wong PS, Kinsbourne M (2006) Left hemisphere specialization for response to positive emotional
expressions: a divided output methodology. Emotion 6(3):473–483. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-
3542.6.3.473
49. Rose M, Sommer T, Büchel C (2006) Integration of local features to a global percept by neural coupling.
Cereb Cortex 16(10):1522–1528. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhj089
50. Rotgans JI, Schmidt HG (2014) Situational interest and learning: thirst for knowledge. Learn Instr 32:37–
50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.01.002
51. Rotgans JI, Schmidt HG (2017) Interest development: arousing situational interest affects the growth
trajectory of individual interest. Contemp Educ Psychol 49:175–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
cedpsych.2017.02.003
52. Sandkühler S, Bhattacharya J (2008) Deconstructing insight: EEG correlates of insightful problem solving.
PLoS One 3(1):e1459. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001459
53. Sharma A, Singh M (2015) Assessing Alpha activity in Attention and Relaxed State: An EEG Analysis.
Paper presented at the 1st International Conference on Next Generation Computing Technologies (NGCT-
2015) Dehradun, India,
54. Shen L, Wang M, Shen R (2009) Affective e-learning: using "emotional" data to improve learning in
pervasive learning environment. Educ Technol Soc 12(2):176–186
55. So WKY, Wong SWH, Mak JN, Chan RHM (2017) An evaluation of mental workload with frontal EEG.
PLoS One 12(4):e0174949. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174949
56. Somers DC, Sheremata SL (2013) Attention maps in the brain. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci 4(4):327–
340. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1230
57. Stern JM, Engel J (2004) Atlas of EEG patterns. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
58. Vecchiato G, Maglione AG, Cherubino P, Wasikowska B, Wawrzyniak A, Latuszynska A, Latuszynska M,
Nermend K, Graziani I, Leucci MR, Trettel A, Babiloni F (2014) Neurophysiological tools to investigate
consumer’s gender differences during the observation of TV commercials. Comput Math Methods Med
59. Womelsdorf T, Fries P (2007) The role of neuronal synchronization in selective attention. Curr Opin
Neurobiol 17(2):154–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2007.02.002
60. Yan C, Xie H, Liu S, Yin J, Zhang Y, Dai Q (2018) Effective Uyghur language text detection in complex
background images for traffic prompt identification. IEEE Trans Intell Transp Syst 19(1):220–229.
https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2017.2749977
61. Yaomanee K, Setha P-n, Pasin INA (2012) Brain signal detection methodology for attention training using
minimal EEG channels. Paper presented at the IEEE10th International Conference on ICT and Knowledge
Engineering,

Areej Babiker is currently pursuing her PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Universiti Teknologi
PETRONAS, Perak, Malaysia. She received her B.E. (Hons) and MSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia, 2011 and 2014 respectively. In 2010, she has undergone
8 months industrial internship at White Nile Petroleum Operating Company in Khartoum, Sudan as an Electrical
and Instruments Trainee Engineer. Her research interests include Human computer interaction, Machine
learning, Pattern recognition, Cognitive Neuroscience and psychophysiology.
16280 Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281

Ibrahima Faye is an Associate Professor at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Tronoh, Malaysia. He is attached
to the Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences and the Centre for Intelligent Signal and Imaging
Research. He received a BSc, MSc and PhD in Mathematics from University of Toulouse and a MS in
Engineering of Medical and Biotechnological data from Ecole Centrale Paris. His research interests include
Engineering Mathematics, Image Processing and Pattern Recognition. He is a senior member of the IEEE, and a
member of the French Mathematical Society.

Wajid Mumtaz has obtained PhD from department of Electrical and Elelctronics Engineering from Universiti
Teknologi PETRONAS. Currently, he is a post-doctoral with center for intelligent signal and imaging (CISIR),
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. His research interests include neuroscience, signal processing and
machine learning.
Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:16261–16281 16281

Aamir Saeed Malik has a B.S in Electrical Engineering from University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore,
Pakistan, M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, another M.S. in
Information & Communication and Ph.D in Information & Mechatronics from Gwangju Institute of Science &
Technology, Gwangju, Korea. He has more than 15 years of research experience and has worked for IBM,
Hamdard University, Government of Pakistan, Yeungnam University and Hanyang University in Korea. He is
currently working as Associate Professor at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS in Malaysia. He is fellow of IET
and senior member of IEEE. He is board member of Asia Pacific Neurofeedback Association (APNA) and
member of Malaysia Society of Neuroscience (MSN). His research interests include neuro-signal & neuro-image
processing and neuroscience big data analytics.

Hiroki Sato received his master’s degree from the University of Tokyo in 2000 and his PhD from Keio
University in 2006. He was a senior researcher at R&D Group, Hitachi, Ltd. from 2001 to 2018 and was a
guest researcher at the University of Tuebingen from 2013 to 2014. Currently, he is a professor at Shibaura
Institute of Technology, Japan. His research interests include cognitive neuroscience and application of near-
infrared spectroscopy.