An empirical analysis of ‘challenge’ as a motivational factor for educational games

Since one of the most basic and important predictors of student achievement is the amount of time a student spends engaged in learning (or time-on-task; Karweit, 1984; Frederick & Walberg, 1980); and because computer games are hugely successful at motivating users to spend time-on-task (Dondlinger, 2007; Gee, 2003; Mayo, 2007), there has understandably been a great deal of recent interest in harnessing the motivational qualities of computer games in order to create powerful, engaging educational tools (i.e., Gee, 2003; Pivec, 2007; Ruben, 1999). However, to date very little empirical academic research has investigated how, exactly, games achieve these motivational qualities. If we are to create games that produce genuinely educational outcomes, we must understand what exactly it is about games that make them so good at maintaining the player’s motivation to continue playing

Murray Sidman: The Accidental Philosopher

Abstract included in text

A behavioural framework for designing educational computer games

Research has indicated that computer games can be innovative and powerful tools for education. Indeed, combining psychological research and games design principles offers a framework for developing educational games that promote learning while maintaining high motivation of the players. If designed correctly, it appears that games can utilize the inherent motivation demonstrated by game players to teach skills that are of immediate practical benefit. The current paper explores “the edges of gaming” in terms of proposing a novel theoretical and methodological framework for the design of educational games

An Investigation into the relationship between the gender binary and occupational discrimination using the implicit relational assessment procedure

The social construction of gender-as-binary plays an important role within many contemporary theories of gender inequality. However, to date, the field of psychology has struggled with the operationalization and assessment of binarist ideologies. The current article proposes a technical framework for the analysis of the gender binary and assesses the suitability of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a measure of binarist gender beliefs. Forty-seven undergraduate students (26 female; M-age = 23.84) completed two IRAPs assessing the coordination of certain traits exclusively with women and others exclusively with men. Effects found on the IRAP were in the expected direction (i.e., relating men but not women with certain traits and women but not men with other traits). In addition, the traits ascribed to men within the IRAP were evaluated as more hirable by a large majority of participants (83%) on an explicit preference task. The results therefore support the arguments that, first, gender traits do seem to be framed oppositionally in language and, second, this binary may underpin existing gender hierarchies in certain contexts

The Impact of Derived Relational Responding on Gambling Behavior

The present article describes existing research on the impact of derived relational responding on gambling behavior. First, it is argued that a greater understanding of the role of verbal behavior in gambling behavior is made possible by research findings and theoretical advances in research on derived relational responding generally, and the transformation of stimulus functions in particular. Second, the findings of several recent studies are described in order to describe the key features of this contemporary approach for verbal events. Finally, implications for the verbally based treatment of disordered gambling are outlined

Computer-interfacing for dummies: Interfacing peripheral devices to your Macintosh PC April 28, 2003

In a previous paper (Roche, Stewart, & Barnes-Holmes, 1999), the graphic experiment generation software PsyScope (Cohen, MacWhinney, Flatt, & Provost, 1993) was reviewed and its relevance to behavioral research in the domain of language and cognition was outlined. Many behavioral researchers have since explored the potentials of this freeware application for the easy generation of behavioral experiments, particularly in the area of derived stimulus relations. In research contexts where the only behavior of importance is subjects’ response patterns on a keyboard, the experimenter needs only to arrange for the appropriate task presentations and the recording of responses. All of this is achieved easily using PsyScope, which is available for free download at http://psyscope.psy.cmu.edu/

A Derived Transformation of Valence Functions Across Two 8-Member Comparative Relational Networks

The emergence of transitive relations between stimuli that had never been directly paired with one another can be examined through a phenomenon called Transitive Inference (TI). The present experiment explored contextually controlled TI effects in verbally able humans. Specifically, participants were trained in the conditional discriminations A1+B1-, B1+ C1-, C1+D1-, D1+E1-, E1+F1-, F1+G1- and G1+H1- in the presence of a cue (Cue 1), followed by tests for mutual and combinatorial entailment in the presence of either Cue 1 or Cue 2. Note that Cue 1 and Cue 2 had been previously established as functionally equivalent to happier-than and unhappier-than contexts, respectively. Using a performancebased measure of Bimplicit preferences,^ we predicted that successfully demonstrating entailment would yield a performance indicating C1 as more positively valenced than F1. Similarly, if participants learned the discriminations A2+B2-, B2+C2-, C2+D2-, D2+E2-, E2+F2-, F2+G2-, G2+H2- in the presence of Cue 2 only, followed by tests for entailment in the presence of both Cues 1 and 2, we predicted that C2 should be responded to as more negatively valenced than F2. Performances across both conditions supported these predictions, furthering the evidence for the claim that emotional valences can be derived through functionally transitive stimulus-stimulus relations

A derived transformation of emotional functions using self-reports, implicit association tests, and frontal alpha asymmetries

Research on the derived transformation of stimulus functions (ToF) typically employs single dependent measures for assessing the stimulus functions after derived relations have been established. For the first time, we examined ToF using three dependent measures both prior to and after relational training and testing. Specifically, we employed self-reports, implicit association tests, and frontal alpha asymmetry as pre versus post measures for assessing ToF. First, we trained two abstract shapes as contextual cues for happier-than and unhappier-than relations, respectively. Next, four conditional discriminations (A+/B–, B+/C–, C+/D–, and D+/E–) were trained in the presence of the happier-than cue only, where A, B, C, D, and E were blurred faces. This was followed by tests for contextually controlled transitive inference (TI) in the presence of both the happier-than and unhappier-than cues. For the participants who demonstrated TI, performance across all three measures following relational training and testing indicated that the Bhappiness^ functions of the A/B stimuli were greater than those of the D/E stimuli. This constitutes the first known demonstration of emotional ToF along explicit, implicit, and neurophysiological measures concurrently

The Impact of Derived Relational Responding on Gambling Behavior

The present article describes existing research on the impact of derived relational responding on gambling behavior. First, it is argued that a greater understanding of the role of verbal behavior in gambling behavior is made possible by research findings and theoretical advances in research on derived relational responding generally, and the transformation of stimulus functions in particular. Second, the findings of several recent studies are described in order to describe the key features of this contemporary approach for verbal events. Finally, implications for the verbally based treatment of disordered gambling are outlined

The Experimental Analysis of Human Sexual Arousal: Some Recent Developments

Experimental analyses of human sexual arousal have been decidedly sparse. Recent developments in the analysis of derived relational responding, however, have opened the way for a modern behavior-analytic treatment of complex or “novel” human behavior, including specific instances of human sexual arousal. The current article examines some of these developments and their relevance to the analysis of emotional behavior, with a focus on sexual arousal. Recent research that has examined the acquisition of sexual stimulus functions within a relational frame paradigm is then outlined. Finally, a series of relational frame interpretations of a variety of human sexual arousal phenomena is offered