MIT engineers have uncovered a method to extract and transfer unconscious expertise through visual attention patterns, potentially revolutionizing how skills are taught.
In a study published in the Journal of Neural Engineering, researchers combined eye-tracking and EEG to identify tacit knowledge in volunteers performing image-classification tasks.
The team observed that participants’ visual attention shifted to image regions critical for classification without conscious awareness. Explicit feedback on these attention patterns improved task accuracy by 15–20%, according to the authors.
“We as humans have a lot of knowledge, some that is explicit that we can translate into books, encyclopedias, manuals, equations. The tacit knowledge is what we cannot verbalize, that’s hidden in our unconscious,” says Alex Armengol-Urpi, a co-author of the study. The method involved 30 participants analyzing over 120 images using dual-flicker stimuli to map attentional focus.
The researchers caution that the findings are limited to a narrow task scope and do not generalize to other domains. Future work will explore applications in medical imaging, sports, and crafts, as stated in the study’s conclusion.
Source: MIT