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Games, Learning and the Brain by Gary Trotta |
 I could yell out the word ATTENTION!, but that would only grab your interest for a short moment. It is biologically impossible to learn and remember information to which the brain is not attending, but at any moment we have tons of information, all arriving simultaneously, through our visual, auditory, olfactory and somatosensory (how you know what your arms, legs and the rest of your body is doing) systems. We receive 36,000 impressions per hour through our eyes alone. So what does our conscious mind do with all this information? If I were to show you six pennies, five of which were imposter pennies, with different inscriptions and such, it would be difficult to pick out the real penny from the imposters. WHY, because very few of us go about memorizing the inscriptions on pennies. The information is not MEANINGFUL, so our great brain simply filters it out. We are always filtering out more information than we can attend to. Probably the best example of this is the cocktail party effect, in which you can listen attentively to the person you're speaking with while simultaneously filtering out the other conversations at the party. In fact, it is crucial to our survival that our brains filter out an enormous amount of input. But why, you might ask, do we filter out information that is meaningful? For example, when we are listening to a presentation, or in a training class.
You see most speakers speak at about 100 to 200 words per minute. Most listeners or trainees can listen and comprehend 400 to 500 words per minute. This by itself is a formula for distraction. It turns out that although there is no learning without ATTENTION, our brain is NOT designed to remain attentive and focused on the same stimuli for extended periods of time. Instead, the brain operates on alternating cycles of high attention or focused attention and "downtime". During that downtime, the brain engages in processing, questioning, revising its own understanding and comparing it with what it already knows. We may actually zone out to conceptualize and consolidate the information. Darn it, I never realized what a great excuse I had in school when I was caught day dreaming,
This is the reason that games work so well for training. That is if you use them correctly, and this means pulsing in and out of the game. This is how games can be used to actually deliver new training information. You see, listening to a lecture, attending to new information is hard work. It is hard to stay focused. We need some down time to consolidate the information. The game provides this kind of down time. TGI designs games, so that a trainer can play the game a while, move into lecture mode, and then jump back into the game again. Our brains work best when they have time to consolidate information. But you don't have to use our games to make this work for your training efforts. Just be sure that you are pulsing in and out of the game, offering small meaningful learning bites, probably no more then ten minutes, in between. In this way, you help your audience keep engaged and attentive to what you are saying.
Any trainer who has used a game in a classroom situation understands how well they are received. Unfortunately, many trainers simply do not maximize the learning potential of the game. Let's face it, multiple choice quiz questions can offer a small tidbit of information, but if the trainer fails to expound on this information the opportunity to provide full conceptual meaning may be lost.
Games are naturally fun, engaging and entertaining. Most of us love to compete to win. It only stands to reason that we use this natural ability of games to enhance our training. More than this, by using a game, we can provide information in such a way that our brains are most receptive to it. We use the game to give learners a chance to consolidate what has been said, provide a break from the lecture (avoiding a slow death by PowerPoint), and exit our training session with greater learner retention and learning.
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