Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Center on the Developing Adolescent: Tuesday, March 15-Gamification Panel

The next event for the Center on the Developing Adolescent will be a Gamification Panel with Melina Uncampher is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University, Elizabeth Ozer is a Professor of Pediatrics at UCSF, Sandi McCoy is an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and Raluca Buzdugan is a Research Scientist in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.   A description of Gamification and the participants' bios are described below.  

We hope you can join us on Tuesday, March 15 from 2:00-3:30pm in 3105 Tolman. 

Gamification Panel Description
Gamification, the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, maximizes adolescents’ desire for arousing experiences in social contexts. Gamification creatively modifies positive attitudes towards activities that individuals are unmotivated to undertake by embedding them in game-like environments.  Many components of gamification draw upon developmentally informed behavior change strategies. Specifically, gamified interventions leverage adolescents’ sensitivity to social context by involving collaboration and/or competition among players and their enhanced reward processing by awarding points, prizes or other rewards for targeted outcomes. Games also provide a virtual context for novel learning so adolescents have the opportunity to test out some decision making trajectories and learn from experiencing positive or negative outcomes. Drawing on self-determination theory, external rewards used in gamification (i.e., points, badges, leaderboard position) become internalized and motivate people by leveraging their basic needs for autonomy, cooperation, competition. Gamification has been used to address a range of adolescent health topics including sexual health, classroom behavior, substance use and violence prevention, and depression. In partnership with an exciting team of panelists, Ron Dahl will discuss the unique opportunities for applying gamification principles in interventions and programs for adolescents.

Panelists: 
Raluca Buzdugan is a Research Scientist in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She as a growing interest in applications of innovative behavior change strategies –such as gamification– to health interventions, with a focus on HIV prevention and reproductive and maternal health.  She is currently applying gamification principles in low-resource settings, including Mexico and Zimbabwe.

Sandi McCoy is an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her research focuses on HIV and STIs with a specific emphasis on food insecurity, health disparities, economic empowerment and impact evaluation. She has become interest in how gamification principles can be integrated into interventions.

Elizabeth Ozer is a Professor of Pediatrics, the Co-Director of the Fellows Research Training in the Division of Adolescent Medicine, and the Director of Research & Evaluation for the Office of Diversity and Outreach at UCSF. She is interested in using interactive technology and gamification in preventive interventions to promote competence and healthy behavior in adolescents.

Melina Uncampher is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University. She investigates whether technology and media are associated with cognitive and neural differences and using fMRI and behavioral assessment of media use and cognitive functioning.

IHD/Developmental Seminar: March 14, Alison Miller Singley

 
Mathematical Reasoning from an Eye-Tracker’s Perspective
Relational reasoning supports learning in many domains of knowledge, as integrating sets of relations allows one to make new inferences and understand broader conceptual systems. In the domain of fractions, the traditional notation is inherently relational, and comparing fractions is especially so, requiring the evaluation of relations both within and between fractions. The first study explored whether and how relational reasoning is associated with performance on a fraction comparison task in a group of children just learning fractions. A second study delved deeper into adults’ mathematical problem-solving approaches, as revealed by gaze patterns. Findings support existing theories that both relational reasoning and domain-specific knowledge are critical to mathematical reasoning.

This talk will be held on Monday, March 14 in 3105 Tolman, 12:00-1:30.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Developmental/IHD Seminar: March 7, Adrienne Wente


Desire as a constraint on young children’s reasoning

This talk will explore how desires constrain young children’s reasoning.  Three studies will be discussed. The first explores overoptimism in children, the second explores the relationship between children’s beliefs about free will and self-control, and the thirdlooks at how culture influences children’s concept of choice.  Taken together, these studies suggest that desires initially constrain young children’s reasoning, and this constraint is counteracted through culturally variable experience.


This talk will be held in  3105 Tolman, 12:00-1:30pm.