Silvia Bunge and her team
convincingly demonstrated how a regimen of card, board, and computer games over
a two-month period could have a dramatic effect on two mental capacities. In
the cumulative 20 hours of after-school play versus the 160 hours of regular
class time two separate groups of 7-9 year olds raised their reasoning and
speed processing capacities 32% and 27%, respectively. This is an incredible
increment of improvement in the mental realm.
Here are some conditions
associated with the study:
In the twice per week after
school sessions, children spent 15 minutes at each of four stations, the
remaining time was spent as short breaks. Researchers, though not closely involved, ensured that the children stayed on
task and motivated by providing occasional hints and increasing the difficulty
of games when appropriate. [1]
How can one account for the
significant change in mental skills by playing games?
 |
| wikipedia |
I believe that the
predominant factor affecting the reasoning and speed processing aptitudes in
the children was novelty. They were engaged in activities that were captivating
and spent substantial intervals performing tasks associated with the selected
games: reasoning or speed processing. Furthermore, they were aided a bit by the
graduate students at the stations.
The 160 hours of regular school time probably did not contribute to the measured gains. Game play did.
Perhaps the class time improved knowledge and skill-related abilities in
academic disciplines of mathematics, vocabulary, and language. It would be
interesting to know if there was a transfer of learning aptitude in the
classroom by those students as a result of the games sessions. That was not
tested.
Can the after-school play
regimen be applied to a classroom setting? Can a teacher create modules with comparable
novelty when covering lessons in language, mathematics, and social
studies? I believe that novelty can be
added to any school learning environment with positive results.
Why was game playing novel for these children?
In one respect it was the
feedback on their progress so that they could immediately take the next step. Games
are designed that way. Classrooms cannot match that immediacy. Also, changing
stations every 15 minutes sustained the novelty as the 7-9 year olds were
challenged mentally for sustained periods in each of the 75-minute sessions.
The adult advocacy, though minimal, may have made the experience more
enjoyable, too.
Play is pleasurable and innate
in children and these after school sessions met that need. Sitting at desks for
long intervals during a school day without continuous feedback does not hold
the same level of engagement. Though hide and seek is pleasurable for young children,
there has to be a transitional novelty that maintains pleasure in academic
pursuits in the classroom through the teen years.
Unlike the hunter-gatherer
and agricultural societies of our ancestors thousands of years ago, we live in
a knowledge assimilation and skill-capable world. The success of our society
hinges on acquisition of knowledge and psychomotor processing in a number of
venues. Our nation will lose its dominance in the global economy if our educational
institutions fail to develop the skill readiness needed in the workplace in the
ever advancing technological society. Our schools will have to employ devices
that provide a reasonable degree of novelty to hold the attention of the many
children passing our nation's schools.
The brain analyzes information and makes decisions on
how to use it
The brain is continuously
receiving sensory information from the environment.
Taste, touch, hearing, vision,
and smell are on alert and receive information directed to the back of the
brain or brain stem. This is the reticular activating system (RAS), and is
responsible for receiving the environmental information that keeps the rest of
the brain aware. Organisms are constantly receiving signals that alert them
about dangers as well as opportunities for shelter, food, and mates. [2]
The amount of sensory
information that the RAS receives from the environment around us is in the
millions per second and is then filtered down to 2,000/second of the most
relevant bits, which is then directed to the respective areas in the sensory
cortex. It is from these regions that the data is passed on to the limbic
system, the place that gives the data emotional significance in the midbrain.
We are an emotional species and the amygdala and hippocampus [3] areas scrutinize
for relevance should the stimuli need to be examined for further analysis. Most
of the time the sensory information taken in to the RAS is not novel and does
not require special attention.
However, a hissing snake in
front of us is interpreted through the auditory and visual cortices as danger
and the amygdala gets that information, interprets it as such, then sends
signals to the automatic centers so that the individual can flee immediately.
There is no deliberation because the amygdala transmits it quickly to other
parts of the brain which then sends it to the adrenal gland where adrenaline is
released for mobilizing the metabolism of glucose in the skeletal-muscular system.
The snake visual and auditory stimuli, therefore, is not interpreted as
requiring deeper thought like doing a math problem, because a math problem does
not pose a physical threat like a snake or spider. The human brain and its
limbic system knows that survival necessitates getting away from the danger as
soon as possible because snakes can harm you.
A trained snake handler has been
educated to understand the risks and the procedures to approach and secure a
snake. The amygdala, hippocampus, and the higher areas of the brain, the
frontal cortex, have worked collaboratively through training to alter the
original fear mechanism upon seeing and hearing a hissing snake. The hissing
and visual appearance of a snake by a trained handler is interpreted: "be
careful, step back, and grab the snake once you have a position that will minimize
the snake's reaction". There might be some hesitation in the first few
trials, but the individual will become a fearless snake handler with repetition
as the prefrontal cortex is conditioned to understand the benefit/risk ratio
and respond properly.
The interplay between the prefrontal cortex and the
limbic system
The interplay between the
prefrontal cortex and the limbic system is a critical aspect of brain
physiology that determines our drive in all matters, including the desire to
perform tasks in school. If the message obtained by the amygdala from the
sensory cortex is perceived as leading to a rewarding experience, the brain
will set in motion the process to obtain that reward. The motivation to perform
the experience is amplified by the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine
in the nucleus accumbens. Dopamine increases the individual's attentive focus
as the potential reward is achieved. [4]
Attentive focus means that
the brain will coordinate nerve cell enhancement during the experience. This is
neuroplasticity, that is, the growth of nervous tissue in the brain. It is
accelerated when environmental cues are interpreted as rewarding or
pleasurable. Dopamine is released and initiates the attentive focus. The nerve
axons in the memory storage area, the hippocampus, will be stimulated and the
individual's focus will produce extensions to the nerve cells called dendrites
and those dendrites will make synaptic connections to the axon body.
Depending on the duration of
the experience and repetitions, the number of dendrite connections can range
from a few to 100,000 per neuron! [5] The
more extensive the nerve network the better the memory of information like a
code or even your lines in a play. Repetition of tasks aid in reinforcing the dendritic
proliferation.
Doing a mathematics homework
assignment that matches the problems introduced in class, for example, is
likely to improve the mastery of that problem type. The students are likely to
do well on a quiz covering the topic the next day. Consider the benefit, too,
of including the answers to the homework problems so that feedback is given
after performing all the steps. That is rewarding, and dopamine production will
go up in anticipation of the reward (getting the correct answer). Completing
the assignment is registered as pleasurable because the student is continuously
finding out that they are competent.
However, assigning a set of
math problems that is not related to the teacher presentation or extremely
difficult compared to what was covered in class will not produce mastery, nor
cause neuroplasticity, and will fail to ready students for the quiz the next
day. Consider, too, that the amygdala will view the problems as an emotional
negative, that is, one of frustration. On a bigger scale is the negativity
experienced by students that contend with bullies and other social and
concentration issues during their time in school.
Patterns and prediction are key learning components in
humans
The key is to provide
experiences that match existing knowledge so the brain can act on the
recognition of the data and skills needed to attend to the assigned task. Positron
Emission Tomography (PET) scans have shown activation of memory banks when
children are learning. These are patterns
that are encoded in the brain from previous learning. Finding the right
combination between simple repetition of a process and extensions that draw
from past knowledge can be very meaningful when bettering mastery of
content areas. The memory builds from the pattern recognition. This is where
Bloom's Taxonomy [6] is relevant because the patterning becomes increasingly
more complex through the steps of recalling, interpreting, implementing,
analyzing, evaluating, and creating. These are constructs that build from basic recall of facts to the advanced thinking mechanisms that embrace a wide scope
of brain functionality Bloom identified in humans.
In the case of the Bunge
study [1], the 7-9 year olds were put in a game situation that was novel and
motivating. Rotating the specific games every 15 minutes along with adult
advocacy promoted attentive focus as well as the consequential dopamine release.
That occurred because the amygdala recognized the environment as not harmful, but rather rewarding. It coordinated the information assimilation with the memory storage
banks in the hippocampus, initiating the creation of dendrites and their
synaptic connection to existing nerve axons.
In the games that were
specifically picked because of their role in promoting reasoning skills, the
children reinforced the development of reasoning skills during each session. There
was the prerequisite information in their brains at the very beginning that
allowed them to learn the game rules, then progress through each level, receive
feedback, and then choose proper ways to execute successive moves. In other
words there were existing patterns in
their cognition that were correlated as they learned the games and practiced a
few rounds. Furthermore, they became somewhat proficient because they nurtured
the prediction aspect of their
mentality. Prediction is a key element
in the mental development of a human and is essentially the decision-making we
do all day long.
Game playing was pleasurable,
too. Consequently the children found the repetition of the pleasure rewarding. Their
focus intensified with dopamine, increasing as the children anticipated the
reward of making it to the next level in each game. Based on the post
evaluation test there must have been a substantial plasticity associated with
that part of the brain that reasons through tasks. In fact the memory was
transmitted over that two month interval from the hippocampus to the frontal
cortex where it was stored long term improving their prediction capacity in the
area of reasoning. Likewise for the speed processing: games incorporating that
functionality repeatedly led to significantly improved scores on the speed processing post test.
The 160 hours of regular school activities did not affect these abilities
during that eight week period and were relevant to the content areas and skills
pursued by the teacher.
 |
| wikipedia |
What can educators derive from this game study?
Prepare lessons that are novel
for children to maximize learning of the content area you wish to present.
Novelty assures dendrite connections will multiply for the retention of the
subject or the mastery of a skill related to a content area. Provide meaningful
experiences in class that touch base with student patterning in that subject and
give homework that improves prediction skills, and you will facilitate the
plasticity that maximizes retention.
I believe that there is a
trend to include novelty in the classroom and educational publishers and
software companies are trying to keep up. However, it might not be catching up
with the ever stimulating novelty of the cell phone and all the social
attractions that capture the attention of young people. Cell phone and Facebook
activities will stimulate plasticity because of the repetition and pleasure
derived with the process, but that brain development is not likely to relate to
academic pursuits.
Just as the reasoning developed
in the 7-9 year olds went up 32%, that same group did not improve in speed
processing. The brain has potential in a wide array of learning functions as
Bloom's Taxonomy states and education should attempt to have students touch
base with a diversity of them. What may
have been characterized as a spectacular presentation in a classroom a
generation ago that built patterns and stimulated prediction, pales to the
excitement value of the Instagram and Facebook postings waiting on an iPhone.
The classroom from the past and expectations for the
future
The pedagogy many of us
experienced a generation ago was essentially lecture presentations accompanied
by worksheets, quizzes, homework, term papers, and occasionally a movie. A
number of students excelled here because they were good auditory learners and/or
were motivated by extrinsic factors such as family encouragement, school penalties
for lack of compliance in behavior or grades, and the prospect of college or
graduate school admittance. I had that intrinsic motivation late in high school
and in college. My peers and I were keenly aware of which educators were very
good and which were poor. If tests came
mainly from notes, we wrote diligently during the lecture and read them
over a number of times the evening before to get high scores on exams. If tests were derived from
the designated textbook we underlined extensively, read them over enough times
to be ready for tests.
Attaining the reward, therefore, required adjusting to the dominant pedagogy available. In many respects most of us taught ourselves content areas to become competent in classes because the 50-minute lectures only provided an introduction to topics. I found that peers in my organic chemistry and calculus classes, for instance, could not teach themselves those disciplines and struggled through them. We wanted to achieve success in order to pursue a fine vocation. I would characterize myself as not being a sophisticated auditory learner at that time, and consequently devoted substantial periods studying in my dormitory room reading, re-reading, and doing exercises over and over again in a notebook to master curriculum.
Attaining the reward, therefore, required adjusting to the dominant pedagogy available. In many respects most of us taught ourselves content areas to become competent in classes because the 50-minute lectures only provided an introduction to topics. I found that peers in my organic chemistry and calculus classes, for instance, could not teach themselves those disciplines and struggled through them. We wanted to achieve success in order to pursue a fine vocation. I would characterize myself as not being a sophisticated auditory learner at that time, and consequently devoted substantial periods studying in my dormitory room reading, re-reading, and doing exercises over and over again in a notebook to master curriculum.
What will it take to improve
attention focus in the classroom for the new generation of pupils? In other
words what practices will stimulate neurological transformations like the
children in the Bunge study? What will cause the proliferation of
neuroplasticity?
The type of lesson planning I
used in the early part of my teaching career (lectures, worksheets, and
quizzes) may still be apropos in various settings, especially if they are
executed with organization and relevance. However, I believe that formidable instructional methods must account for the recent developments in
neurological science and encompass the entirety of a student body and what is
relevant to their foundational thought patterns. It is incumbent on schools to
perpetuate the eagerness of the elementary school child through their senior
year in high school. There are various ways to maintain the novelty for the
older students so they can experience plasticity and prepare them for the
complexities of the next level of education and eventually their vocation.
References
[1] Bunge, S., Mackey, Hill, Stone, Differential effects of reasoning and speed training in children, Developmental Science, Volume 14,
Issue 3, pages 582–590, May 2011
[2] Steriade, M. (1996). "Arousal: Revisiting the reticular activating system". Science 272 (5259): 225–226.
[3] Phelps E., Human emotion and memory: interactions of the amygdala and hippocampal complex, Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2004 Apr; 14(2):198-202.
[4] Arias-Carrión O, Pöppel E (2007). "Dopamine, learning and reward-seeking behavior". Act Neurobiol Exp 67 (4): 481–488.
[5] Alberts, Bruce
(2009). Essential Cell Biology (3rd ed.). New York: Garland Science.
[6] Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W.
H.; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York:
David McKay Company.
