Events from the UBC Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program

Thanks to the UBC Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program for the announcement that Thich Nhat Hanh will visit Vancouver in August 2011. As well, there are a number of interesting events happening this fall.  Check it out!

Happy News: A welcome change to balance things out

If you are tired of being inundated with news of the dismal, here is something new:  Happy News – Real News.  Compelling Stories.  Always Positive.

Why  not contribute and add to the positivity?

Why You Can’t Meditate – Part I

There are so many reasons why you can’t meditate.  Or so you think.

1.  You don’t know how!

Do you know how to sit?  And close your eyes?  Do you know how to count mindfully from 1 to 10 repeatedly in your mind?  Do you know how to observe your thoughts as they enter your mind?  You can meditate.

2. You don’t have time

You can skip that episode of ‘The Office’ that you have seen thrice before.  You can cut out 10 minutes from Facebook, Twitter and Internet ‘research’.   You can make time.

3. It’s too noisy

Your sitting practice will not always happen while perched atop a serene setting such as Spirit Rock.  A typical sitting practice will occur in your home, on a regular day, with life moving full steam ahead.  The noise is an important part of your practice.   It can never be too noisy.  Treat the noise as you would your fleeting thoughts.

4. Your body aches

Two words: Pain Meditation

Stay tuned, as there are many more reasons why you shouldn’t meditate!

Meditation and emotional impact on pain

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100602091315.htm

Meditating Health

Can meditation have long-term beneficial effects on the plasticity of our brains? Bon meditation practitioner Alejandro Chaoul and oncologist Lorenzo Cohen evaluate the healing potential of meditation in a discussion from the Rubin Museum of Art’s Brainwave Festival.

Listen to the audio recording of the talk.

Paul Ekman on Darwin, the Dalai Lama, and the nature of compassion

Paul Ekman is coming to Vancouver March 11th to discuss the similarity between Darwin’s thinking about compassion and virtue, and the Buddhist view.

A Theory of Fun

hi everyone,
Since game design is top of mind, I thought I’d call out this book which I have listed in the ‘Recommended Readings‘ section called ‘A Theory of Fun‘.  I have yet to read it myself but it’s in my list – I believe it will be informative for the purpose of designing a suitable game for our experiment.

Survey of flow-inducing online games – ‘Nightmare’

Interested in your thoughts on these mini games that just launched today.  In particular: ‘Reactions’ and ‘Focus’ are two ideas that might work if we are able to extend the trials.

Have a play!

Suggestions: Experiment design / on-line measurements.

This post to discuss the design of the game / experiment.

This is a first draft of an experimental design in case we decide to program our own game.

Experiment = Main task (video game) + secondary task.

Main task: Video game. Slow increase in difficulty. Every N minutes a system test would be performed:

• If player’s performance (mean over the last N min) is above a given threshold T (e.g. T=90%): difficulty level is increased.
• If performance equals T: difficulty level is kept constant.
• If performance is below T: difficulty level is decreased.

• The balance between “participant’s skills /difficulty level” corresponds to a condition where Flow state can appear. Once this equilibrium is reached we let the participant play during a given time (e.g. 10 min or long enough for us to collect physiological data).
• At the end of the 10 minutes the program enters a “forced” mode: the difficulty level is increased independently of the participant’s performance. The goal is to disrupt the flow state and to induce progressively a stress-like state.

Secondary task:

• Nature: Visual or auditory. Do not need to be a real part of the game. Must not concur with the main task as far as response production is concerned.
• Role: Allowing us to evaluate level of attentional focus on the main task.

Experiment structure & Rough expected results:

- Stage 1: “Boredom”(duration: depends on participant)

• Perf _main > T  à Difficulty level keeps rising.
• Perf _second. high

- Stage 2: “Transition” (duration: depends on participant)

• Perf _main > T  à Difficulty level keeps rising.
• Perf _second. is decreasing .
• This pattern would be only observed if the instructions emphasise enough the fact that the main task take precedence over the secondary task, otherwise the pattern might change regarding participant’s strategy. In the other hand, a too strong emphasis might lead to participant to neglect the secondary task.

- Stage 3: “Flow” (duration: e.g. 10min)

• Perf _main = T  à Difficulty level kept constant (or oscillates).
• Perf _second.: very low.

- Stage 4: “Stress” (duration: TBD or until perf fall under given threshold)

• Difficulty level gradually increased à Perf _main decreasing.
• Perf _second.: very low (or increasing a little since the participant is not able anymore to perform correctly the main task).
• There might be another transition between Flow and Stress states.

Designing flow into gaming experiences

Literature specifically on the topic of designing video games with flow in mind:

• A Theory of Fun for Game Design by R. Koster
• Developing a pattern language for flow experiences in video games by P. Lemay
• Toward an understanding of flow in video games by B. Cowley