1 / 25

Cognitive Bias and Game Design - Tobi Saulnier

Distrust your intuition! The principles popularized by Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow” apply to game designers as much as anyone. What to look out for and how to mitigate the effect of these pervasive biases.

SeriousPlayConf
Download Presentation

Cognitive Bias and Game Design - Tobi Saulnier

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Cognitive Bias and Game Design Dr. Tobi Saulnier CEO, 1stPlayable Productions Serious Play 2018

  2. Design as Magic

  3. What are Cognitive Biases? • Heuristics can lead humans to reach effective and efficient choices – Gigerenzer & Brighton (2009) • Cognitive biases can be considered the systematic errors that sometimes result from these heuristics – Tversky & Kahneman (1974) • Automatic and unconscious influences on behavior – Kahneman (2011) • Impair optimal decision-making in ways that people do not typically notice and cannot readily overcome. • Negative effects on a wide range of tasks have been discussed within business, medical, legal, and military settings –e.g., Nickerson (1998)

  4. Cognitive Biases - Ubiquitous

  5. CYCLES CYCLES • Part of IARPA program, designed to train Intelligence Analysts • Serious game that teaches bias recognition, discrimination, mitigation • A four year intensive experiment in what works Lessons in cognitive bias

  6. Cognitive Bias Training •Training people with games is possible •But training people to avoid cognitive biases is hard (Sanna, Shorts, & Small, 2002) –Literature on Anchoring says: pretty much impossible •Fundamentally, can we train people in these biases?

  7. CYCLES: Basic Lesson We (our brains) are and always will be biased BUT There are simple thinking tools that can help Always remember your thinking tools CYCLES games let players experience this lesson 8

  8. Two Games • Game 1: Fundamental Attribution Error, Confirmation Bias, and Bias Blind Spot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QqY4KmX1S4&feature=youtu.be • Game 2: Anchoring, Projection, and Representativeness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-St0x9a5uq4&feature=youtu.be 9

  9. Game 1 – 3 Biases Confirmation Bias – People search for or interpret information in a way that confirms their preconceptions. Often preceded by priming. Fundamental Attribution Error – People over-emphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior. Bias Blind Spot – Individuals are unaware of their own cognitive biases, even when they can recognize cognitive biases in others. • • •

  10. Bias in Game Design Repetition and Duration Character Customization RIch/Minimalist Narrative/Art Do details in narrative or art impact efficacy? Relative impact of longer game experiences Player investment in custom characters versus no choice 11

  11. Bias Knowledge More than Doubled Best game: Repeated Play Exp 3a Knowledge Improvement Video avg. post 99% Immediate Immediate 8-weeks 8-weeks Video avg. 8-week 33% Pre to Post N = 335 8-week N = 198 All conditions statistically significant (p<.05) difference with pre-test

  12. CYCLES Game 2 Biases Anchoring Bias – Tendency to be inordinately influenced by one piece of information, often the first idea or data point. Projection Bias – Tendency to hold an implicit assumption that others think, believe, or know what you do. Representativeness Bias – Tendency to judge the likelihood of a hypothesis by how much the available data resembles it (Includes gambler’s fallacy, conjunction fallacy, base rate neglect, insensitivity to sample size) 13

  13. Game 2 Development Variables SATs Rewards Interactivity Practice with Structured Self-Critique- like system vs. without Sounds, visuals, prizes, bronze-silver-gold ratings accompanying feedback vs. feedback alone Choices in content and instruction vs. straight- through play 14

  14. Game Design Biases Tested • Value of colorful art • Value of narrative and fictional setting • Value of customization • Limited impact of rewards • Importance of struggle 15

  15. Efficacy versus Perception Even though some design variables were established as not affecting teaching effectiveness, they may affect player perception 16

  16. Confirmation Bias Tendency to attach to the current design. Kill your darlings – Pixar 'We only know that it's the process of doing it over and over again to get it right.' Iterate! Assume you’re wrong. (Quote Google: “Launch and learn”) 17

  17. Projection Bias Overreliance on personal tastes in games. Client: “I like ____, so we should make that genre.” Designer: “Based on playing the game, I want the game to be … “ Continual first hand playtesting. (Quote Google: “Launch and learn”) 18

  18. Representativeness My daughter/son/niece likes ____ Personal connections are great … but limited. 19

  19. Sample Size Over influence of small playtest sizes Typical playtesting is too small to extrapolate. 20

  20. Fundamental Attribution Error Tendency to underestimate the impact of external factors. 21

  21. Bias Blind Spot Even if educated about bias you will always be biased, in ways you can’t perceive. Rapid prototyping as a tool to combat in development. 22

  22. 23

  23. Cognitive Bias and Game Design Dr. Tobi Saulnier CEO, 1stPlayable Productions Serious Play 2018

More Related