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One Christmas when I was a little bonehead in 1st or 2nd grade, I got a chemistry set. It came in a triptych-like case that unfolded with rows [...]
April 29, 2013
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I would be remiss to not reference Lev Vygotsky, a long dead but genius dead Russian psychologist who has been one step and the better part of a [...]
April 11, 2013
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We tend to view abstract thinking and language as ‘higher cognitive function’ and procedural, motor learning as, well, less higher. [...]
March 31, 2013
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In several previous posts, I talk about the idea of creating motivation (here, here and here). If a player comes to a game expecting to like [...]
February 28, 2013
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We are surrounded by stimuli. Whenever we are awake and conscious, a constant stream of information is pouring into our brains. From this, we [...]
April 7, 2012
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The basal ganglia are is a group of structures nestled under the cerebral cortex. What exactly the basal ganglia do remains controversial and [...]
January 16, 2012
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Motivation is a complex concept with a long history in psychology and neuroscience. I am going to sketch a notion of ‘motivational [...]
January 8, 2012
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With games like Farmvile, Mafia Wars and Cityville, Zynga has helped expand the traditional game market and captured an absurd number of monthly [...]
December 19, 2011
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It’s natural for video game designers to think of their competition as other video games. But video games, especially among people who are [...]
December 5, 2011
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A long-standing distinction in psychology, particularly within education, is that between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic [...]
November 20, 2011