Cognitive Gamer: Recent Episodes
Stephen Blessing
I examine how cognitive psychology can help explain and inform how we play games. Each episode looks at how a particular cognitive phenomenon affects game playing. All types of games are considered, from board games to video games to games of chance. Check out cognitivegamer.com for more information.
How can some people remember scores of digits at a time or repeat back all the cards in a shuffled deck? Do they have exceptional memories? Is it a party trick? Or, is there something more? Game References Chess, En … Continue reading →
It’s time to dive in and finally have an in-depth discussion of working memory! Game References Carcassonne, River Valley Glassworks, Tetris, That’s Not a Hat, Wandering Towers, Wilmot’s Warehouse Research References Baddeley, A. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255(5044), 556-559. Baddeley, A. D., … Continue reading →
It’s a bird, it’s a…yeah, it is a plane! Oh, and also a Tower? We are back with a cognalysis of two games, Sky Team, fresh off its Spiel des Jahres win, and also Wandering Towers. Game References Hanabi, Sky … Continue reading →
As humans, we can think about our own thinking. This is referred to as metacognition, and can provide great insight into game playing and life in general. Game References Dominion, Dungeons and Dragons, League of Legends, Magic, poker, Rear Window … Continue reading →
This episode considers how best to learn and teach games. Are there particular techniques that enables people to learn games more quickly and efficiently, and that also results in a longer memory for those rules? Game References Fog of Love, … Continue reading →
When processing information, humans use both the information coming through our senses and previously stored knowledge. This is referred to as bottom-up versus top-down processing. This podcast explores how this occurs when we play games. Game References Paranormal Detective Research … Continue reading →
Show Notes When playing games, we find it useful to consider what other players know, and how that affects game play. Psychologists study theory of mind, our concept of what other people know. Dr. Jennifer Blessing and I discuss how … Continue reading →
I ruminate on playing games online and how that relates to both game and interface design, as well as how humans experience emotion. This has ties to me planning to teach my Cognition of Game Playing as an online class … Continue reading →
In talking about a game, we almost always make references to past games in order to describe or teach the new game. What does cognitive psychology have to say about analogy use, in terms of how prevalent and useful it … Continue reading →
What happens, cognitively speaking, as we move from novice to expert in a game? The episode examines changes in memory and strategy as people gain experience not only games, but in other mental and physical activities as well. Game References … Continue reading →
If you are an experienced gamer, you have seen that you can pick up a new game much more quickly than someone who doesn’t have as much gaming experience. Why is that? We discuss both the benefits and detriments of … Continue reading →
Multi-tasking happens a lot. We’re in a meeting, we email. We watch TV, we text. And to the chagrin of many, we play a game with our friends, we scroll through social media. What does cognitive psychology have to say … Continue reading →
We examine the concept of levels of processing in this episode, that if you process an experience more deeply, you will remember it better. This comes into play in many aspects of gaming, for both players and designers. Game References … Continue reading →
Wingspan is a hot new boardgame that’s rocketing up the boardgamegeek’s rating chart. In this episode we take a look at some explanations of why so many people have become enamored with this game. Game References Wingspan Research References Greene, … Continue reading →
Game players often get stuck, either not seeing how to properly use an object in the game or perhaps persisting in an inefficient strategy. I discuss two such mental sets, functional fixedness and Einstellung. Game References Burgle Bros, Defender, Go, … Continue reading →
Big changes happen in memory and knowledge as a person goes from beginner to expert. What does this entail for playing games? We take a close look at the two main types of memory, and how knowledge transitions between the … Continue reading →
How do we figure out how much something should cost or what the value of a thing should be? One decision-making heuristic process for this is anchoring and adjustment. Discover how this is used not only in game playing but … Continue reading →
I’m joined again by the resident developmental psychologist, where we talk about scaffolding, a learning technique where help and assistance are removed bit by bit until the full skill has been learned. Game References My Little Scythe, Scythe, Sleuth, Sushi … Continue reading →
I take a dive into Decrypto, comparing how clues are given in it versus in Codenames. Both the similarities and differences shed light into our cognitive processes and how items are stored in our memories. Spoiler alert: Bayes’ Theorem is … Continue reading →
We are constantly explaining to ourselves why events happen. When those explanations involve linking the outcome of an event with our response, a psychologist would refer to them as an attribution. We explore how attributions affect our game playing. Game … Continue reading →
The representativeness heuristic is another rule-of-thumb that we use when we need to make a decision. We apply it when we decide an event is likely to happen if it resembles, or is representative, of the category from which it … Continue reading →
Virtual reality adds new dimensions to games. Psychology informs us of the issues on what goes on in a virtual environment. Join the discussion as we hit some of the big topics in this new way to play games. Also, … Continue reading →
Some people have the idea that memory is like a tape recorder: if you remember it, that’s the way it happened. But, the data show that our memories can change quite a bit over the course of time. We discuss … Continue reading →
There are a number of heuristics that people use when they make decisions. In this episode, we discuss the availability heuristic and how we use it when playing games. Game References Battlefield, Celeste, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Doom, Dungeons … Continue reading →
What might a cognitive psychologist say about game design? We discuss some of the issues Don Norman raised in his classic book The Design of Everyday Things and how that relates to game design, both from the player and the … Continue reading →
This episode contains a deep dive into the cognitive ins and outs of the Playstation 4 game Horizon Zero Dawn. Much of the analysis, though, could be applied to most open-world games. We’ll consider narrative, skill transfer, and types of … Continue reading →
Cognitive psychologists make a lot of distinctions with different types of memory. In this episode I provide an overview of the various ways that scientists have divvied up memory, and how each relates to how we play games. Game References … Continue reading →
Many of our memories are structured around stories. They are a very powerful device, that allow us to remember and experience more than what we might otherwise. Using story and narrative within games can increase our enjoyment of them. I … Continue reading →
Kids can learn a lot by playing games. In this episode I talk with Dr. Jennifer Blessing about the skills that children learn by playing games, such as turn taking, goal setting, and number sense. Game References Candyland, Chutes and … Continue reading →
Games can be thought of as solving one big problem: How do I win? Cognitive psychologists think about problem solving in terms of a search process, how to get from your current state to a goal state. I discuss what … Continue reading →
One constraint that everyone has is working memory capacity. Or in other words, how many things you can remember at any one point in time. While there are individual differences in this, another aspect turns out to be more important: … Continue reading →
I consider the popular board game Pandemic from a number of different angles. What makes it an interesting game, cognitively speaking? I touch on decision making, attention, cooperation, and also the Legacy and iPad versions. Game References Burgle Bros, Mechs … Continue reading →
Humans do not always make the most optimal decisions. We are limited by our cognitive resources. We usually make decisions, even in playing games, that are just “good enough.” The process of making a “good enough” decision is known as … Continue reading →
For about as long as there have been computers, there have been computer programs that play games. This episode considers some of the history of game playing computers, and how that has shed light on the nature of human intelligence. … Continue reading →
You need to have focused attention while playing games. If you don’t, you might miss a critical move in a board game, or totally miss that other player about to blast you in Call of Duty. This episode considers how … Continue reading →
Visual memory has a different character than verbal memory. This episode examines the nature of our visual memory, and how it is used in such games as Tetris, Carcassonne, and any game that has a map that your character must … Continue reading →
How verbal items are stored in long term affect how they are retrieved. This in turn affects how we play a fair number of games, as they require retrieval of items from long term memory. In particular, I consider such … Continue reading →