Learning in your sleep

There has been a lot of conjecture on the role of sleep in memory formation and consolidation. New research indicates that – in animals at least – that sleep is crucial for consolidating memories at a biochemical level. Donald Clark is a big proponent of ‘spaced practice’ in learning – taking breaks for consolidation and optimal performance. Well, its official, take a break for a kip and you’ll do yourself right. Neuroscience gets better every day. Red wine, chocolate and now sleep helps learning performance.

“If you ever argued with your mother when she told you to get some sleep after studying for an exam instead of pulling an all-nighter, you owe her an apology, because it turns out she’s right. And now, scientists are beginning to understand why.

In research published this week in Neuron, Marcos Frank, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, postdoctoral researcher Sara Aton, PhD, and colleagues describe for the first time how cellular changes in the sleeping brain promote the formation of memories.

“This is the first real direct insight into how the brain, on a cellular level, changes the strength of its connections during sleep,” Frank says.

The findings, says Frank, reveal that the brain during sleep is fundamentally different from the brain during wakefulness.

“We find that the biochemical changes are simply not happening in the neurons of animals that are awake,” Frank says. “And when the animal goes to sleep it’s like you’ve thrown a switch, and all of a sudden, everything is turned on that’s necessary for making synaptic changes that form the basis of memory formation. It’s very striking.”

The team used an experimental model of cortical plasticity – the rearrangement of neural connections in response to life experiences. “That’s fundamentally what we think the machinery of memory is, the actual making and breaking of connections between neurons,” Frank explains

See full article at http://www.physorg.com/news153578717.html

Stories and narrative – ‘simulators that run on minds’

I seem to have heard a lot about stories, narrative and learning recently. A couple of projects we are working on require the use of overarching narrative within the learning games. These methods were specifically requested by the clients to drive deeper learner engagement and higher performance. In conversations with Donald Clark, he points out the complex narrative present in many popular TV shows and video games. In part this is a response to the current media backlash against the Internet and digital media as learning and social medium – turning us into pancake people, highly distracted learners who have neither the time nor skills to reflect deeply on the avalanche of information available to us. So we know a little bit about a lot of things but without any depth. Donald, quite rightly rejects this notion and as part of this rejection he points to the complex storylines of TV drama The Sopranos, The Wire, Lost, 24 etc. These demand high levels of analysis and reflection to unravel plots, character intentions and motives.

A great article in Gamasutra describes a renaissance in narrative design through releases such as Bioshock, Façade and Far Cry 2. Games designers have long since recognized the power of narrative to engage and motivate players. Next Gen is driving new levels of innovation in modular story design and increasing player freedom to be able to create their own narrative within games.  So, all of this has had me thinking about the how and why of integrating narrative into the design of Immersive Learning Simulations.             

 

By happy coincidence an article in the Scientific American landed in my inbox entitled “The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn. Our love for telling tales reveals the workings of the mind”

 

 

 

 

 

Failing to Win!

It’s Boxing day and I’m playing Super Mario bros on the DS with my brood of kids. My Christmas day hangover goes unnoticed as does the leftover turkey as we feverishly drive our little avatar. We are lost in the flow of movement, reaction, reward and encounter. We are constantly testing, experimenting, questioning and refining….and we are dying. We are being squashed, burnt, frozen, shot, electrocuted, eaten and thrown into infinity. We make error after error, mistake upon mistake and we love it. We fight each other for the little machine for the chance to die again. We strike up Zelda and it’s the same.

Invincible

In games, catastrophic failure and errors are often fundamental design mechanics. They provide real time essential feedback to the player. They are fun, motivating, challenging and engender the replay, reflection and experimentation that leads to progress.