Source:
https://scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3003858/brain-scan-or-brain-scam-shenzhen-authorities-investigate
China/ People & Culture

Brain scan or brain scam? Shenzhen authorities investigate school’s use of ‘IQ machine’

  • Parents furious after being told their children had been hooked up to a machine capable of testing their intellectual potential
  • Device’s developer makes results of spurious research, which involved over 2,800 pupils, available online at US$30 per child
Parents in Shenzhen were told they could view the full results of their children’s tests online for US$30. Photo: Oeeee.com

Education authorities in southern China are investigating reports that a privately run school in Shenzhen used a pseudoscientific “brain scanner” to measure its pupils’ intellectual potential.

The incident caused uproar among local parents, some of whom feared the tests might have been a ruse to steal their children’s fingerprints, Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Thursday.

Others questioned the scientific credentials of the company – Shanghai Aotian Information Technology – that created the machine and conducted the tests, a father surnamed Liu was quoted as saying.

“First, the school is suspected of collecting students’ fingerprints,” he said. “Second, is this kind of test scientific? Third, the school works with a commercial organisation and charges money for detailed results. Is it some kind of trade-off?”

Many parents questioned the scientific credentials of the company that created the machine and conducted the tests. Photo: Oeeee.com
Many parents questioned the scientific credentials of the company that created the machine and conducted the tests. Photo: Oeeee.com

Liu said that parents were told after the tests had been conducted that they could view a summary of the results online free of charge, but would have to pay if they wanted a complete breakdown.

“We could see a report telling us our children’s strengths and weaknesses, but if we wanted more detailed information we had to pay 198 yuan [US$30],” he said.

Exactly what strengths and weaknesses the tests were capable of determining remains a grey area.

According to the newspaper report, Shenzhen Arcadia Grammar School, in the city’s Boan district, said that more than 2,800 of its 8,000 pupils took part in the process to measure their “brain ability”. This involved them wearing a “device” on their heads and pressing their fingertips against a sensor.

When parents viewed the summaries of the results – which were made available on WeChat, China’s most popular messaging app – their children were graded against a variety of measures, including “brain tissue activity”, “organising ability” and “innovative thinking”, the report said.

Despite the vague terminology, the company said in a statement that its “IQ machine” had passed an assessment by the education ministry and had been provided to Arcadia as part of the “standard equipment” used for psychological testing in primary and high schools.

The school described the machine as a “potential analysis instrument” that worked by “analysing brain waves and the electric potential at the fingertips”.

Both the developer and the school denied the machine had been used for nefarious purposes, such as stealing the children’s fingerprints, but said they had handed it over to the police for analysis.

“We have not collected fingerprints and we will never share any of the information we acquired,” Shanghai Aotian Information Technology said in a statement.

It also dismissed allegations the tests had been carried out as part of a moneymaking scam, the report said.