Current Research Direction

Lifelong learning has garnered increasing interest given its relevance to people as well as to machine learning. The 2019 World Bank’s Annual Report highlighted the importance of lifelong learning amid an era of information explosion, technological transformation, and ongoing evolution. Researchers have long advocated for the promotion of lifelong learning skills in school and family settings. A lifelong learner should be persistent, autonomous, and self-motivated. Given the complexity of the cognitive mechanism underlying lifelong learning, few studies have systematically deciphered the interplay between persistence, autonomy, and motivation (the three basic elements of lifelong learning). Further, little is known about the role of emotion in lifelong learning.

Theoretical Framework

Equiptment

The Intelligent Micro-facial Expression Recognition System integrates computer vision processing technology and micro-expression detection. Its judgment system can model and learn large numbers of cases through offline training of terabyte data. The system obtains micro-expression models corresponding to different cognitive and psychological states, especially micro-expression data that convey emotion-based changes

Data Visulization

Future Directions

A future project is planned that explores the development of lifelong learning competence between high school students (adolescence) and college students (early adulthood) in addition to including students from different countries (e.g., China, Korea, and Turkey). The same procedure will be used as in the aforementioned study with the potential inclusion of MRI data. Adolescents’ prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, and the emotional control circuit (i.e., top-down control of the prefrontal cortex for the limbic system) in the brain is not fully formed. Thus, adolescents may exhibit different patterns of lifelong learning competence compared with early adults. Relevant insight could help educators explore ideal ways to promote lifelong learning competence while the brain is developing.