Concentration-Image-250Researchers at NC State University have developed a computer program that successfully imitates the difference in human behavior between playing the game of Concentration for speed versus playing for accuracy. This they believe could help computers distinguish between human users and automated bots.

Sure, it seems like they’ve proven the opposite. However, Dr. David Roberts, professor of computer science and co-author of the paper, “Modeling the Concentration Game with ACT-R“, explains:

One way to approach the distinction between bot behavior and human behavior is to look at how bots behave. Another way is to look at what humans do. We’re focusing on the latter. We’re looking for distinctions so subtle that they’d be very difficult to replicate outside of a cognitive architecture like ACT-R. The level of sophistication needed to replicate those distinctions in a bot would be so expensive, in terms of time and money, that it would – hopefully – be cost-prohibitive.

[via CSO Online]