Fun Mind Games
Students often come to class without the necessary experience or prior knowledge to fully appreciate the authenticity of the theories and principles they are learning in class. So, I use these fun mind games to let them experience those theories and principles first hand. These games provide students with things to refer back to when they try to make sense of those theories and principles.
Afterimage Trick
I use this to demonstrate that our visual sensory registry only lasts about 1 second.
Why do I do that?
Because I need to make a strong point that teachers must make sure students are paying attention to what's important by directing student's attention to what's important by applying proper multimedia learning principles. By paying attention, the stimulus is moved from the sensory registry to short-term memory where it can now last for 18-30 seconds. By using the slides below, I have students look at the inverted photo for 20 seconds, then suddenly switch it to the black & white photo. For more information, watch this video.The surprise happens when students see the picture in full color for a second or so. The duration of the afterimage is equivalent with the duration of one's visual sensory registry.
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Stroop Test
I use this to demonstrate the dominant tendency of our mind to decode written text over other visual features.
Why do I do that?
Because I need to make a strong point that when we teach something, if we show the text that does not support what we are saying or teaching at the moment, our students will semi-automatically decode the text and it will interfere with their learning. You might think students can ignore the text, but it's very hard to do. By using the slides below, I have students name the ink color as quickly as they can. Due to the text dominance, students will tend to read the text rather than name the ink color.
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Selective Attention Tests
I use this to demonstrate how selective our attention is.
Why do I do that?
Because I need to make a strong point that a teacher must make sure to direct students' attention to the pertinent item. Our attention is so selective that we could miss something that's very conspicuous if our attention is directed somewhere else. This leads to the importance of the coherence principle, signaling and cuing principle, and spatial contiguity principle. By using the slides below, I give students attention tests. Most students will fail to notice some obvious parts of the video.
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