SHARED ATTENTION IMPROVES LEARNING OUTCOMES IN REAL-WORLD EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS: AN EEG HYPERSCANNING STUDY

The social environment of the classroom plays a crucial role in shaping learning through shared attention and interactions between students and teachers. Despite its importance, the neural mechanisms supporting these dynamics remain poorly understood, as traditional single-brain studies fail to capture the reciprocal neural activity emergent during social learning. This study performs an advanced analysis of EEG hyperscanning data from high school students during real-world biology lessons to investigate how shared attentional states influence learning outcomes across interactive and passive teaching formats. To isolate genuine Inter-brain Synchrony (IBS) from spurious correlations induced by shared sensory input or environmental noise, we implemented a statistically controlled pipeline using the Circular Correlation Coefficient (CCor), a robust estimator of phase coupling. The statistical significance of the observed IBS was assessed via a phase-shuffling procedure, creating a null distribution of surrogate datasets by disrupting temporal relationships while preserving signal structure. Only synchronization values exceeding the 95th percentile of this null distribution were retained. Since all students were exposed to the same environment, differences in IBS across teaching formats reflect interaction-related processes rather than simple shared stimulus effects. Additionally, cognitive indices — Engagement, Attention, Pleasantness, and Memory — were derived from EEG spectral power. Statistical differences in both CCor values and cognitive indices were assessed using Linear Mixed Models (LMM) to account for the hierarchical structure of the data (students nested within groups and lessons). Our results demonstrate that interactive teaching significantly increases IBS, particularly in the alpha band, compared to passive listening. Higher synchronization levels directly correlate with improved learning performance and shared attention, while lower IBS is associated with a decreased engagement index. These findings support the hypothesis that learning involves measurable neural alignment across individuals. Thus, IBS, quantified via CCor and validated via phase-shuffling, serves as an objective neural marker for evaluating teaching strategies and optimizing knowledge transfer, bridging social neuroscience and educational science.