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Here's a little introduction to motivation in psychology that you might find interesting--the other videos on the site are worth a peek, as well (though FYI, they are by no means as fun to watch as TED Talks).

Kosslyn's definitive text on mental imagery. Shaped my views on the subject. Please "Like" this!

Discusses game design and using the gamers' imaginations to your advantage.

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.)

This article examines some of what we've been talking about in class, in terms of student motivation (or the lack thereof).

Why technology should not be the sole source for learning.

This article addresses how to foster motivation in a child - including being interested in the child's interests, pinpoint the source of frustrations, encourage the child at every step, focus on the child's strengths, and take time to overcome the frustrations.

Beautiful article Jing Jing. Thanks for sharing. Too often we push children through "our" timelines and curriculum without bothering to consider their interest or their development level. This article is a nice reminder that some kids are on their own clock and page.

My reaction to this article was "aren't these five principles common sense? Why doesn't everybody follow them?". And I realized that I haven't followed them either. Not all of them. Not all the time. Seems to me that either as a parent bringing up a child or as a society tasked with shaping the next generation we usually know the right things to do, but don't do them.

An article about reasons that we shouldn't limit kids' computer play, or their total daily "screen time".

This article suggests lessons that other teachers can learn from jazz teachers in motivating students and talks about the social, constructivist, and personal aspects of jazz that make it a passion for students who may otherwise be uninterested in school. "Students need to be doing something every day to demonstrate their learning."

This article talks about a study on the positive and negative effects of "challenge stress" and "hindrance stress" on motivation to learn and learning performance. I linked the citation here; to access the full text, I recommend using Harvard's E-Research site to search for the Journal of Applied Psychology and then getting to the article via the EBSCO link in the catalog record. (Or else find J Appl Psuchol through EBSCO and log in with Harvard LibX.)

Here is a succinct treatment of cognitive flow and its relevance for game design.

The author talks about society's addiction to "stupid" mini-games (e.g. Angry Birds), which have minimal learning objectives but help us compartmentalize our lives.

Here are some interesting ideas on all fronts regarding motivation.

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.

This author advocates for using pop quizzes to motivate studying. I disagree with his method, but it's still good to see his side of the argument.

This is an MFA thesis that proposes a practical methodology for implementing Csikzentmihalyi's theory in the design of videogames.

We talked briefly in class about how depression by definition is lack of motivation yet people who are depressed are somehow motivated to be on line and participate in online gaming. The articles I have posted give some insight to this, but I don't feel satisfied with the explanations they have. Any ideas?

A new study published in the March issue of the Psychological Bulletin suggests that exposure to violence in video games may not have huge consequences.