Group items tagged

research shows that people prefer equity in situations. fairness affects one's emotions about a situation

"Does playing video games improve your brain? Or do bigger brains make it easier to learn video games? Psychologists say they can predict how well you'll do on a video game by looking at the size of just three little structures inside your brain. If those structures are bigger, you'll probably catch on more quickly and do better."

Interesting article discussing a study showing that the size of certain brain structures can predict video game performance

A study out of Stanford looked at how videogames, in particular serious games and games for health, can activate circuits in the brain associated with positive motivation. "The study published today provides new insights into how these effects might have occurred, revealing that active participation in gameplay events is key to activating the brain's positive motivation circuits. Seeing and hearing the same information without active participation in gameplay had no impact on activity in positive motivation circuits."

How can we help these children feel the sense of flow when in math class? Children who get anxious about doing math have brain function that differs from children who don't, with math-specific fear interfering with the parts of the brain involved in problem-solving, according to functional MRI (fMRI) scans of 7- to 9-year olds that formed the basis of a study published online March 20 in Psychological Science.

Some researchers are looking at how video games open up new wiring in the brain. "Infancy is filled with the best of times: critical windows of weeks and months when the growing brain fine-tunes things like language skills and vision. And it's wise to take advantage of them, for when the windows slam shut, those skills don't develop. Or so scientists used to think." Also, "Playing a video game called Medal of Honor helped some people recover lost visual abilities." But some researchers are not confident we know enough or raise ethical questions about further interventions.

aesthetics help draw interest in the brain?...

This is a very interesting project, especially in light of our conversation about ways that physiological and psychological markers can inform learning systems (adaptive learning, responsive software, etc.)

more studies needed to sort out what is happening

"It has long been understood that memroy formation is an active and often exhausting process, losing them seems to happen quite passively as time elapses and new information overloads our busy brains. But a new study published February 19 in the journal Cell shows that forgetting is a biochemically active process not unlike memory formation."

Gaming sharpens thinking, social skills, and perception.

While mini articles such as this often leave out half the research - the concept of doodling being an enhancer rather than a distraction is interesting.  The main point is that doodling engages the brain just enough to keep students from spacing out.  

Can self-awareness exercises change our brains for the better? Is the practice of meditation a kind of flow experience?

How do fast-paced video games affect the brain? Step into the lab with cognitive researcher Daphne Bavelier to hear surprising news about how video games, even action-packed shooter games, can help us learn, focus and, fascinatingly, multitask. (Filmed at TEDxCHUV.)

Related to our discussion of attention and flow, this article talks about external and internal causes of distraction and what to do about them.

Tying in with our conversation about flow, this article mentions a way to physically induce flow through "transcranial direct current stimulation".

I have to say..I am a bit weirded out by this article. The days of Johnny Mnemonic are not far behind.