Interpreting The EEG Essay

1478 Words6 Pages

The brain has the ability to take in information and interpret it, but the way that interpretation affects a person's ability to comprehend an idea or to learn a topic is a subject that has not been fully explored. The act of learning simply devolves down to the retainment of information. When it comes to verbal and auditory learning, which is most widely used in schools, several factors can affect the quality of retainment. For example, how a learner may interpret the voice of the person giving the verbal information could affect how quickly the information is retained. In an experiment that was featured in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory suggested that the detailed information about a speaker’s voice is retained …show more content…

The electrodes are attached to the scalp, and when the neurons in your brain communicate via electrical impulses, this activity then can be portrayed as wavy lines on an EEG recording. Since brain cells are always in constant activity, the EEG really measures the change in electrical impulses or response. Traditionally, an EEG is used as a main diagnostic test for epilepsy and other brain disorders15, but in recent years, EEG technology has begun to stretch far beyond the bounds of medical. For example the EEG is beginning to be used in clinical studies, even though some individuals remain sceptical about the EEG’s value as a research tool. For example, Ashcroft, the author of The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body, compares interpreting the readings from the EEG to trying to understand the relationships between people living in a city like New York, simply by listening in on all of their telephone calls at once, making it impossible to pick out individual conversations. The EEG is however capable of providing a glimpse of what the brain is doing16, particularly in time of