Group items tagged

"In this paper we will discuss how positive psychology can contribute to the design of digital games and in particular training applications like Serious Games. While digital games have been known for their ability to deeply immerse users, stimulate the senses and tap into a broad range of emotions, it has proven rather challenging to use them as a vehicle for pedagogy. Relevant research is still at its infancy and many of the mechanisms that foster knowledge creation and enhance learning need to be mapped out before scripted in the game. The theory of psychological flow and the role of positive emotions in broadening people's thought-action repertoires bring some practical insights and pave the path for tackling some important de-sign questions. Yet there are still major challenges and uncharted waters to be explored in order for the technology to deliver what has been promised."

"Driven by an initiative of the Adult & Paediatric Diabetes Psychology Service of New Zealand, research has been performed to develop new mechanisms, in the form of computer games, to educate children and teenagers about living with diabetes. Aimed at achieving maximum education effectiveness, the ultimate goal of our research is to develop innovative machine learning algorithms that can be used in games to improve their ability to learn about the changing needs of children and to incorporate this intelligence into the game interface. We also plan to collect and report on the information collected from testing our computer games within a small group of children who have been diagnosed with type I diabetics. "

From the summary: "This thesis reviews and utilizes concepts from cognitive psychology, developmental psychology and game design to bring forth a number of design principles for educational games that may improve students' motivation to learn. The main contribution of this thesis is a novel approach to serious game design, namely envisioning play and learning as a restructuring practice. This change of perspective, from a formal game design approach (focused on rules and regulations) towards a more activity centered approach (focused on process and style), may help designers to leverage the motivational potential of games, in order to make education more engaging to students."

Abstract: "This paper describes the design and evaluation of Zoo U, a novel computer game to assess children's social skills development. Zoo U is an innovative product that combines theory-driven content and customized game mechanics. The game-like play creates the opportunity for stealth assessment, in which dynamic evidence of social skills is collected in real time and players' choices during gameplay provide the needed data. To ensure the development of an engaging and valid game, we utilized an iterative datadriven validation process in which the game was created, tested, revised based on student performance and feedback, and retested until game play was statistically matched to independent ratings of social skills. We first investigated whether the data collected through extensive logging of student actions provided information that could be used to improve the assessment. We found that detailed game logs of socially relevant player behavior combined with external measures of player social skills provided an efficient vector to incrementally improve the accuracy of the embedded assessments. Next, we investigated whether the game performance correlated with teachers' assessments of students' social skills competencies. An evaluation of the final game showed (a) significant correlations between in-game social skills assessments and independently obtained standard psychological assessments of the same students and (b) high levels of engagement and likeability for students. These findings support the use of the interactive and engaging computer game format for the stealth assessment of children's social skills. The created innovative design methodologies should prove useful in the design and improvement of computer games in education."

Abstract : "This paper explores how supernormal stimuli may have contributed to the remarkable popularity of several types of video games: first-person shooters (FPSs), massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and Minecraft. Human culture, technology, and environments have advanced so rapidly in the last 10,000 years that the brains of Homo sapiens have not been able to keep up. Humans survive in the modern world, but still retain a mind stuck in the Pleistocene. Supercharged representations of ancient stimuli, which appealed to prehistoric human ancestors in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA), appear in many video games and may be hyper-stimulating humans' adaptive instincts. These supernormal stimuli appear to correlate with the remarkably engaging, pleasurable, and satisfying experiences human players derive from playing these games. This paper goes on to propose that greater recognition of the potential of supernormal stimuli, and experimentation with the creation of virtual worlds stand to improve not only digital games, but the way in which humans live, work, and play in the real world."

The director of the Media Psychology Research Center posts a three part series on the value of video games for education and engagement http://www.pamelarutledge.com/2012/08/26/self-efficacy-and-problem-solving-in-video-games-part-i/ http://www.pamelarutledge.com/2012/08/28/the-positive-side-of-video-games-part-ii/ http://www.pamelarutledge.com/2012/08/29/the-positive-side-of-video-games-part-iii/

Interview with designer of a game getting inside experience of drone pilots

"Millions flock to their computers, consoles, mobile phones, tablets, and social networks each day to play World of Warcraft, Farmville, Scrabble, and countless other games, generating billions in sales each year. The careful and skillful construction of these games is built on decades of research into human motivation and psychology: A well-designed game goes right to the motivational heart of the human psyche. In For the Win, authors Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter argue persuasively that gamemakers need not be the only ones benefiting from game design. Werbach and Hunter are lawyers and World of Warcraft players who created the world's first course on gamification at the Wharton School. In their book, they reveal how game thinking?addressing problems like a game designer?can motivate employees and customers and create engaging experiences that can transform your business. For the Win reveals how a wide range of companies are successfully using game thinking. It also offers an explanation of when gamifying makes the most sense and a 6-step framework for using games for marketing, productivity enhancement, innovation, employee motivation, customer engagement, and more."

Abstract: "Twenty three interviews and four surveys were conducted as case studies investigating the perceptions of expertise, expertise acquisition, and gaps in employment readiness for novice game developers. Participants were primarily game development production staff and educators involved in game related programs. Research results were compared to employability skills research. The findings indicated that there is a great deal of alignment between them, but employability skills may be insufficient on their own to be a reliable standalone source for curriculum development in the game development field because of the industry's unique characteristics. Implications from the research results, and insights from the in-depth interviews, that may be relevant to curriculum developers include evidence for a mismatch of the values, needs, and expectations of stakeholders; and a delineation of key characteristics of expertise and long-term success that may be valuable for inclusion in curriculum outcomes and measures. Two of the key characteristics identified were goal-focused passion, and holistic perspectives. Holistic perspectives included an awareness of heuristic use of tacit knowledge. The model of an expert learner was supported as a potential curriculum outcome focus that encapsulated the main characteristics of expertise that novices or advanced beginners could acquire. Another implication is that there may be a relation between expert characteristics and characteristics of functional behaviours that are related to positive psychology and cognitive behavioural therapy."

"This essay focuses on two cases studies that include two game designers' views of meaning- making construction in games and an analysis of their corresponding games. This is placed in relation to the late modern Sweden context. The study examines how the designers conceive purposeful play by employing a multi-disciplinary approach consisting of Pruyser's three-world model, Bell's ritualization framework, and, Howard's quest theory. Such a study is relevant due to the new ways meaning-making is actively produced within games and contributes to the understanding of meaning-making in late modern Sweden."

Poster presented at Society for Study of Motivation Meeting in conjunction with Association for Psychological Science 5/24/12

Application of games to project management tasks to improve emotional intelligence

applied behavior analysis

Interdisciplinary team at University of Albany, supported by Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), in partnership with a local game company

"Players who became anonymous dictators in a simple online game showed unexpected benevolence toward their subjects, giving away more of their own money than previous, real-life experiments predicted. "This was supposed to be a simple replication, where we backed up the results of previous experiments, just in an online setting," said biologist Nichola Raihani of University College London."

Review of John Radoff's lecture at Becker College, February 2012