Learning Objectives
- Identify the role which the principles of learning explored in the previous lab play in our daily lives.
- Be able to relate experimental psychology to social psychology.
Materials
- Whiteboard markers and erasers
Overview
The main role of this lab is to expand upon the previous one, where we discussed principles in Classical and Operant Conditioning using the Sniffy Pro software. Not in complexity, but in meaning. We want students to be able to relate all that is learned in the classroom, which is based on laboratory experiments, to their own daily lived experiences.
Time Allocation
| Introduction and Flappy Sniffy Leaderboard | 5 Min |
|---|---|
| Reflecting on the game | 15 Min |
| Improving on Flappy Sniffy | 8 Min |
| Reflecting on your daily life | 12 Min |
| Wrap-Up/Take Home Message | 5 Min |
| Question Submission | 5 Min |
Introduction (5 Min)
- Ask students if they have played the game and if they enjoyed it.
- Pull up the leaderboard for the appropriate lab section and compliment the winners.
Reflecting on the game (15 Min)
The goal of this first activity is to allow students a good amount of time to really try to identify in the game all the content in Classical and Operant conditioning that we have been discussing in lectures and in the previous lab.
They should be very thorough here, let them know that the game was thought of carefully to incorporate a lot of notable elements both in gameplay as well as in its structure and form.
Afterwards, have students name many of the points they identified with the whole class.
Improving on the game (8 min)
The premise of this activity is that the students try to think about what else they would add to the game to make it more engaging/addictive/appealing. It is important that the suggestion given be based on either a principle of Reinforcement learning, classical, or operant conditioning, and that they justify their choice and what they based it on.
Have them bring it up to the rest of the class afterwards.
Reflecting on your daily life (12 minutes)
This last activity will be like the first, only now students will have to come up with their own object of study, by finding something they all have in common in which they can identify many of the topics discussed so far. Encourage them to think about it in detail particularly with how many parties are involved, and what is the overall goal of the learning being observed in this scenario.
Take-Home Message (5 mins)
The principles we have been discussing over these past two weeks are not simply restricted to experiments in the lab.
They form an important basis of even our interpersonal relations
Modern design practices in games, apps, and all sorts of things – especially those monetized – make use of principles in Psychology and Learning to increase user engagement.
Final Submission (5 mins)
Do you agree with the focus on incorporating elements of associative learning theory to increase user engagement in games, apps, and social media? Do you think its something “bad”? Why? Why not?