A Parallel Universe: Psychological Science in the Language of Game Design

This chapter uses the evolving language of game design to demonstrate how psychological science provides a foundation for game-based learning. Section 1. Provides a brief review of the history of games in the psychological literature. Section 2. Describes how the scientific principles of behaviorism connect to the language of games and Section 3. Performs the same task with regard to cognitive psychology. Section 4. Warns the game community about psychological hazards that can create trouble for individuals and organizations trying to realize the promise of gamification. Section 5. Summarizes a research agenda for psychology.

[1]  G. A. Miller THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS TWO: SOME LIMITS ON OUR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION 1 , 1956 .

[2]  James Mark Baldwin,et al.  The Play of Animals , 1899 .

[3]  Douglas A. Gentile,et al.  A Conceptual Review of Research on the Pathological Use of Computers, Video Games, and the Internet , 2012, International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

[4]  José Miguel Soares,et al.  The Big Five default brain: functional evidence , 2013, Brain Structure and Function.

[5]  A. Tversky,et al.  The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. , 1981, Science.

[6]  Marco Perugini,et al.  Big Five Assessment , 2002 .

[7]  A. Kazdin The token economy: a decade later. , 1982, Journal of applied behavior analysis.

[8]  P. G. Schrader,et al.  Spore: Spawning Evolutionary Misconceptions? , 2010 .

[9]  Kajal T. Claypool,et al.  Latency and player actions in online games , 2006, CACM.

[10]  Andrea Fossati,et al.  The Big Five Inventory (BFI) , 2011 .

[11]  K. Lloyd,et al.  Weekly variations in performance on a token economy psychiatric ward. , 1968, Behaviour research and therapy.

[12]  H. Tajfel,et al.  Social categorization and similarity in intergroup behaviour , 1973 .

[13]  T. B. Rogers,et al.  Self-reference and the encoding of personal information. , 1977 .

[14]  M. Gazzaniga The split brain revisited. , 1998, Scientific American.

[15]  S. P. Stermer,et al.  SeX-Box: Exposure to sexist video games predicts benevolent sexism. , 2015 .

[16]  K. J. Anderson,et al.  Impulsitivity, caffeine, and task difficulty: A within-subjects test of the Yerkes-Dodson law , 1994 .

[17]  Philip Morrison Numbers: Prime or Choice? , 1998 .

[18]  Geoffrey James The Tao of Programming , 1987 .

[19]  C. B. Ferster,et al.  Schedules of reinforcement , 1957 .

[20]  H. Tajfel Experiments in intergroup discrimination. , 1970 .

[21]  E. Langer The illusion of control. , 1975 .

[22]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  Choice behavior in social dilemmas: Effects of social identity, group size, and decision framing. , 1986 .

[23]  R. Yerkes,et al.  The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit‐formation , 1908 .

[24]  Nick Yee,et al.  Motivations for Play in Online Games , 2006, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[25]  Tim M. Schoenmakers,et al.  Is there such a thing as online video game addiction? A cross-disciplinary review , 2013 .

[26]  J. Gibson The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[27]  Petra Buchwald Test Anxiety and Performance in the Framework of the Conservation of Resources Theory , 2010 .

[28]  G. Fink,et al.  Neural correlates of the first-person-perspective , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[29]  P. Ekman Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life , 2003 .

[30]  Karen E. Dill,et al.  Video Game Characters and the Socialization of Gender Roles: Young People’s Perceptions Mirror Sexist Media Depictions , 2007 .

[31]  B. Skinner Superstition in the pigeon. , 1948, Journal of experimental psychology.

[32]  Dirk Ifenthaler,et al.  Assessment in Game-Based Learning: Foundations, Innovations, and Perspectives , 2012 .

[33]  D. Prelec,et al.  Always Leave Home Without It: A Further Investigation of the Credit-Card Effect on Willingness to Pay , 2001 .

[34]  Matthew G. Rhodes,et al.  50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology , 2011 .

[35]  J. Neumann,et al.  Prisoner's Dilemma , 1993 .

[36]  Jesse Fox,et al.  Sexism in online video games: The role of conformity to masculine norms and social dominance orientation , 2014, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[37]  M. Csíkszentmihályi Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience , 1990 .

[38]  Dirk Ifenthaler,et al.  Assessment for Game-Based Learning , 2012 .

[39]  K. Werbach,et al.  For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business , 2012 .

[40]  B. G. Demarest Psychology and Philosophy of Play. , 1907 .

[41]  R. Bootzin,et al.  The token economy: an evaluative review. , 1972, Journal of applied behavior analysis.

[42]  Christopher P. Niemiec,et al.  The Path Taken: Consequences of Attaining Intrinsic and Extrinsic Aspirations in Post-College Life. , 2009, Journal of research in personality.

[43]  Randolph R. Cornelius,et al.  The science of emotion: Research and tradition in the psychology of emotion. , 1997 .

[44]  D. Myers Intuition: Its Powers and Perils , 2002 .

[45]  J. Stroop Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. , 1992 .

[46]  Nathan H. Azrin,et al.  The Token Economy: A Motivational System for Therapy and Rehabilitation , 1968 .

[47]  W. H. Winch III.—PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF PLAY (I.) , 1906 .

[48]  Teresa M. Amabile,et al.  Motivation and Creativity: Effects of Motivational Orientation on Creative Writers , 1985 .

[49]  N. Burgess,et al.  Spatial memory: how egocentric and allocentric combine , 2006, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[50]  Susana Imaginário,et al.  Intrinsic Motivation and Creativity Related to Product: A Meta-analysis of the Studies Published Between 1990–2010 , 2013 .

[51]  D. Kahneman Thinking, Fast and Slow , 2011 .

[52]  N. Wilkinson,et al.  An Introduction to Behavioral Economics , 2007 .

[53]  E. Deci,et al.  The support of autonomy and the control of behavior. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[54]  Stewart Culin North Queensland Ethnography: Bulletin No. 4. March, 1902. Games, Sports, and Amusements. By Walter E. Roth , 1902 .

[55]  M. Csíkszentmihályi,et al.  Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: The Experience of Play in Work and Games. , 1977 .

[56]  J. Matson,et al.  The token economy for children with intellectual disability and/or autism: a review. , 2009, Research in developmental disabilities.

[57]  K. Teigen Yerkes-Dodson: A Law for all Seasons , 1994 .

[58]  Stephen W. Hawking,et al.  On The Shoulders Of Giants , 2016 .