Month: October 2011

tweets

Tweets for 2011-10-27

Need suggestions for good music to code to. Anyone? #
RT @oliverburkeman: "Anything you can do, I can do meta-" — Douglas Hofstadter #
RT @timeshighered UCAS data: as of 19 Oct, female applicants down 10.5% on same date last year, male applicants down 7% #
On http://t.co/85Rwnq1n: I tell you how to study more effectively, the easy way http://t.co/cGh4pBij #
Thanks Vaughan! RT @vaughanbell: Great piece by @tomstafford on how the science of memory points us to better learning http://t.co/bju29FJu #
Brain shaped salt and pepper shakers? http://t.co/gZfWzNwa Don't mind if I do #
Loving the http://t.co/pXNplTez blog, especially the illustration on this post http://t.co/ppW0WtBu #
Advertisers "employ neurobiologists to find ever more ingenious methods of bypassing the conscious mind" sez george http://t.co/lPLv1C4z #
RT @vaughanbell A review of the new Kahneman book on cognitive illusions from @jonahlehrer in the New Yorker http://t.co/syhgQU1f #
"No celebrity disaster is too tragic to remind us of an interesting fact about cognitive science" sez @vaughanbell http://t.co/aKFr1SQb nice #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-10-20

RT @psypress new psychology of language article by one Noam #Chomsky http://t.co/DX1GGtVC (and free access) #
Vital, inspiring, exciting talk about @StoryingShef from #TEDxSheffield http://t.co/jmvOo94v. Proud this kind of course can run at my Uni #
Interesting .@timeshighered interview with Nature editor http://t.co/Bfb0wEll #
Enjoying R "without the arrrgh" thanks to http://t.co/87AjoW3k and a recommendation from @deevybee #statistics #
About to give first lecture on neural network modelling to our first years. Emegence, levels of description, computation: all good stuff! #
So, er, anyone got access to this? http://t.co/lOftRbSI "Vygotsky's zone of proximal development: The hidden agenda" Bruner (1984) #
Solved! @dantekgeek is my new hero of teh intertubes #
gmail -> creater filter -> criteria= to:-me from-me -> action:move to folder 'circulars'. -> Email clarity boost 100% #
Wish I could be there MT @jennacondie: Psychology talk from Christian Jarrett (@Psych_Writer) Thurs eve in Manchester: http://t.co/TsjeOUjv #
Tapp (2003) : it is genuinely harder to teach an old dog new tricks http://t.co/fbS16TZW #
"National differences in gender-science stereotypes predict national sex differences in science and math achievement" http://t.co/W77mA4R3 #
Amygdala volume, of course RT @royalsociety The number of Facebook friends you have is associated with brain size http://t.co/2BnNWxcX #
The @38_Degrees petition #SavetheNHS is on 475377 signatures. They're hoping for 500000 by the end of the day http://t.co/ivlhIWia #
RT @aden_76: “@tobystevens: iPhone accelerometer hijacked as keystroke logger http://t.co/JLYg0eGN” smart n sneaky via @dgwbirch #
RT @vaughanbell: The hot hand smacks back http://t.co/jLXdzwIu A commonly cited 'cognitive illusion' may not be illusory #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-10-13

One for all you data visualisation geeks http://t.co/zoWfTfbu a roundup of the nicest figures recently published in scientific journals. #
Old nature article about neuroscience and freewill. Full of the confusions of neuroscientists http://t.co/2NVS5mIk #
A conceptual prophylactic for neuro-philo-confusion: http://t.co/Rx2eFCCj "Toward a Philosophical Structure for Psychiatry" via @vaughanbell #
old, but Jolly Good NY Times article on psychology of free will http://t.co/WYhF2C7Y #
Skepticism about free will linked with a weakened readiness potential (from EEG recording) http://t.co/2Ga0C2DH #
old scientiic american article on replication of Libet experiments with intracranial recording of single neurons http://t.co/cNdZ9MSY #
(1/2) Most of this freewill stuff appears amazing for the same reason that fMRI scanning appears amazing: … #
(2/2) … as native dualists we're astounded by *any* evidence that brain causes mind. #
Guilty or not-guilty? It depends on how the jury constructs a story from the facts they're given http://t.co/lzgu3hyW #
Nick's been done got bang to rights RT @underscrutiny: Romantic masochism invested in and infected by a new age http://t.co/areMxi8c #
MT @matthew_mella: Overlap, tomorrow: free talk from @russStearman about #narrative in videogames. http://t.co/WdVGJZj3 #Sheffield #
Our friends in Cardiff seem to have no idea of the practical impossibility of allowing scientists veto over copy… http://t.co/h6wiGPcZ #
Virtually northing remotely readable would get published on science, ever #
RT@js_simons Rip-roaring stuff from @ProfAndyField on why psychologists shouldn't be smug about stats errors http://t.co/5O88xLfv… #
"This study provides the first evidence that sexist ideologies can create gender inequality within societies" http://t.co/FDsLBTvt #
Last link via @BPSOfficial and @psychoBOBlogy #
RT @Psych_Writer Steve Jobs' gift to cognitive science. Just posted on the Digest: http://t.co/ZukIGHEE #
"Games of Invention" http://t.co/GO29Vidf a short article about creativity I wrote for the boys at @rattlecentral now on the blog #
.@alexfradera that article inspired by our last annual wander/chat about creativity, improv and science (and the other ten thousand things) #
It's not the booze, it's your beliefs about the booze http://t.co/odl1Jm9K great stuff from Kate Fox on culture and behaviour #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-10-06

100 years of Style / East London. Very enjoyable http://t.co/Le1ZwSUZ thanks @robotdan #
RT @PsychScientists Skinner & Epstein train a pigeon to pass the mirror test for 'self concept': http://t.co/hjxDeCJC #
RT @PsychScientists
Seriously, BF Skinner was a total badass <– this is what @totalshowman keeps telling me. In different words! #
Friday afternoon and p<0.049 for my latest analysis. I *know* its just an arbitrary threshold, but its the arbitrary threshold everyone uses #
RT @SheffCivicTrust: #Sheffield is England's greenest city, with 150 woodlands and 50 public parks! #
RT @vaughanbell: Top athletes, singers have coaches. Why don't other professions? http://t.co/7l5hQ9HS Properly fascinating New Yorker piece #
Why GTD works! RT @PsyBlog: How to Avoid Being Distracted From Your Goals. Making specific plans creates mental space http://t.co/D6QY44sv #
My thoughts on Randy Olson's "Don't be such a scientist: talking substance in an age of style" http://t.co/dL2192xH #
UK Judge rules against use of Bayes' Theorum in court, unless we have "firm" knowledge of the priors http://t.co/r1SprMTT #
Textbook use of juxtaposition by the Mirror to suggest that Knox is pleased Kercher is dead http://t.co/zKJjWLi0 #
RT @PsychScientists I love how well Bad Lip Reading works bit.ly/mZ4Pls Match intonation and most of the obvious lip movements and viola! #
And while we're talking about who expectation drives perception: "I Kissed a Girl" (backwards) http://t.co/2u54RgF8 #
But my favourites are on Jeff Milner's backmasking site (and the one I use in PSY101 lectures) http://t.co/5V5bCF0u stairway to heaven! #
RT @andybrownphoto: My work is featured in this month's Now Then magazine – if you're in Sheffield, pick up a copy ! #

idiocy systems

Games which teach kids systems thinking

Post author By tom
Post date October 4, 2011
5 Comments on Games which teach kids systems thinking

Procedural thinking may be the 21st century’s most essential yet endangered way of thinking. Of course the best way of teaching it to your kids is to live in the 1980s and buy them a BBC Micro, but that is getting harder and harder in these days of touchscreens and it being 30 years too late. Now children’s games designers Exploit ™ have introduced a new range of children’s games for exactly the purpose of teaching procedural thinking skills to your kids. Each game in the new range is designed to be played by children and adults together and involves rules of age appropriate complexity. Standard play of these games should allow the player with the most foresight and self-control to win most of the time (ie the adult). Within each ruleset, however, is hidden a loop-hole which, if discovered, should allow the unscrupulous player crushing victory after crushing victory. The thrill of discovering and using these loop-holes will train your kids in the vital skills of system analysis, procedural thinking and game theory. Parents can either play in “carrot” mode, feigning ignorance of each game’s loop-hole and thus allowing their children the joy of discovery; or they can play in “stick” mode, exploiting the loop-hole for their own ends and using their child’s inevitable defeat, amidst cries of “it’s not fair!” as encouragement for them to engage their own ludic counter-measures.