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Introduction
Associate professor in educational psychology with a focus on media psychology, attitude formation and how technologies affects behavior, play, learning, thinking.
Currently on a crusade to nuance the screen use debate.
I use a fairly broad palette of mixed methods - from controlled lab- and field experiments, over survey studies, to good old fashioned fieldwork. At one point I thought I would be a neuroscientist.
My current research hobbies are sustainable choices/behaviour and stupidity
Current institution
Additional affiliations
November 2014 - August 2016
October 2014 - July 2016
September 2014 - November 2015
Publications
Publications (90)
This article experimentally dissociates the psychological impact of framing versus game mechanics, when presenting a serious activity as a game. Studies of game elements in nongame contexts tend to describe full packages, with no way of assessing their individual psychological and functional impact. To isolate the effects of framing, students (N =...
Governments around the world have implemented measures to manage the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). While the majority of these measures are proving effective, they have a high social and economic cost, and response strategies are being adjusted. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that communities should have a voi...
This paper presents strategies that Viennese adolescents use in order to uphold snap streaks – a gamified challenge on Snapchat. In order to secure the daily exchange with their streak partner, adolescents would resort to the so called streak snaps – impersonal pictures with reduced content that are sent just for the purpose of keeping the streak....
This report from the Danish School of Education analyses mobile phone rules in schools from 2018, including their reasons and effects, as observed by the schools.
The report is based on an extensive phone survey of 602 of the 1870 primary education schools in Denmark.
Main findings:
- Nine different rule models can be identified. The most common...
The aim of the paper is to present an analysis of empirical data combining theoretical concepts of play order and play practices (Schatzki 2001; Schmidt 1999; Author 2021, Author et al. 2022) with theory of inclusion and exclusion (Author 2012, 16; Author et al. 2018; Author et al. 2020; Author et al. 2022). Thus, the pedagogical challenge is to su...
To answer the question if Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) were benefiting or hindering the mental health of people undergoing isolation during the early pandemics of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), we inquired how people perceived the usage of five ICTs and their relationship with them. We addressed three hypotheses: there is a relationshi...
Frühkindliche Medienbildung in der Kita unterscheidet sich in europäischen Kindergärten nicht grundsätzlich. Überall gibt es erste Ansätze, aber auch viele Bedenken und Berührungsängste. Um einen Einblick in die verschiedenen Konzepte zu bekommen, haben wir exemplarisch fünf Erfahrungsberichte aus dem europäischen Umfeld eingeholt. Angefangen von D...
Many school-age children have difficulties participating in play and need support to find playmates, take the initiative and structure play. If children do not master these competencies, they risk Contribution Type Title Authors Abstract ending up in a spiral in which they are not given the opportunity to practice playing and develop play competenc...
The Covid pandemic has yielded new insights into psychological vaccine acceptance factors. This knowledge serves as a basis for behavioral and communication interventions that can increase vaccination readiness for other diseases.
Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood. Method: In this study, we analyzed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science...
I forskningsprojektet ’Må jeg være med’ (Skovbjerg, Hansen, Sand, Jensen, Lieberoth, Lehrman og Jørgensen, 2022) har vi som en del af projektet udforsket, hvordan pædagoger håndterer inklusions- og eksklusionsprocesser i relation til leg, samt hvilken betydning pædagogers håndtering af disse processer har for børns mulighed for deltagelse i leg. Ar...
Forskning peger på, at børn der mangler legekompetencer oplever en mere generel
marginalisering i livet. I denne artikel præsenteres resultaterne af et design based research-studie, der har undersøgt mulighederne for at skabe flere deltagelsesmuligheder i leg for børn i indskolingen. Mere specifikt undersøges det, hvordan designprincipper kan udvik...
Artiklen handler om samspillet mellem børns sociale praksisser og materialer. Med udgangspunkt i et empirisk materiale fra et designbaseret forskningsprojekt og begreberne intra-action (Barad, 2007) og affinity (Mason, 2018) udforskes det hvordan materialer indgår i børns leg med hinanden og hvilke potentialer materialer har i børns leg? Der er ikk...
Digitale medier – fra spillekonsoller og teknologisk legetøj, til tablets og mobiltelefoner – er en integreret del af børns liv, også i de mange timer de tilbringer i danske daginstitutioner, hvor der i stigende grad stilles krav til digital dannelse og kompetenceopbygning. Samtidig er mange pædagoger, forældre og beslutningstagere skeptiske ift. b...
Forskning peger på, at børn der mangler legekompetencer oplever en mere generel marginalisering i livet. I denne artikel præsenteres resultaterne af et design based research-studie, der har undersøgt mulighederne for at skabe flere deltagelsesmuligheder i leg for børn i indskolingen. Mere specifikt undersøges det, hvordan designprincipper kan udvik...
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals' experiences related to the crisis. a year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. this survey was released with the goal of a...
This study examined the various ways in which Danish news media represented digital media as a problem over a period of three years. We present data from a content analysis of 263 newspaper articles and chi-squared analyses identifying associations between worries, voices, culprits, and those responsible for solving problems. We find professionals...
Denne rapport præsenterer resultater fra forskningsprojektet MÅ jeg være med? Om leg, inklusion og fællesskab i skolen. Formålet med projektet har været at udforske, hvordan leg kan understøtte fællesskab og deltagelse i børnefællesskabet i indskolingen. Samtidig har formålet med denne udforskning været at bidrage med bud på leg og legedesigns, der...
In the risky-choice framing effect, different wording of the same options leads to predictably different choices. In a large-scale survey conducted from March to May 2020 and including 88,181 participants from 47 countries, we investigated how stress, concerns, and trust moderated the effect in the Disease problem, a prominent framing problem highl...
Nowadays, most social media platforms apply some form of game-like elements intended to attract, retain and shape human interaction. It hence becomes vital to investigate gamification with regard to its social sustainability—a concept describing conditions fostering the well-being and development of communities. This chapter critically assesses the...
The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...
The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...
The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...
The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173,429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...
Many parents worry over their children’s gaming habits, but to what extent do such worries match any detrimental effects of excessive gaming? We attempted to answer this question by comparing children of highly concerned parents with other adolescents of the same age. A cohort of parents who identified as highly concerned over their children’s vide...
PurposeWe highlight a number of concerns regarding a recent publication in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care which involves the apparent presentation of three case studies of video game-related suicide. Conclusions
Although presented as a case report, the publication falls short of ethical and best-practice standards in the reporting of suicide, and...
This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey-an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavir...
this N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey-an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavir...
Background
To limit the rapid spread of COVID‐19, countries have asked their citizens to stay at home. As a result, demographic and cultural factors related to home life have become especially relevant to predict population well‐being during isolation. This pre‐registered worldwide study analyses the relationship between the number of adults and ch...
In the risky-choice framing effect, different wording of the same options leads to predictably different choices. In a large-scale survey conducted from March to May 2020 and including 88,181 participants from 47 countries, we investigated how stress, concerns, and trust moderated the effect in the Disease problem, a prominent framing problem highl...
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
The automated evaluation of creative products promises both good-and-scalable creativity assessments and new forms of visual analysis of whole corpora. Where creative works are not ‘born digital’, such automated evaluation requires fast and frugal ways of transforming them into data representations that can be meaningfully assessed with common crea...
This N=173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey – an open science effort to improve understandings of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavi...
To limit the rapid spread of COVID-19, countries have asked their citizens to stay at home. As a result, demographic and cultural factors related to home life became especially relevant to predicting population well-being during isolation. This pre-registered worldwide study analyses the relationship between the number of adults and children in a h...
During early lockdowns due to COVID-19, a large number of families were isolated at home. This keynote details analyses dissociating factors like stress, coping and pertinent worries in families with dependents versus others in the 2020 COVIDiSTRESS global survey
This interim report presents the findings of a large international study on the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Finnish residents
Dette er en dansk oversættelse og validering af Children's Locus of Causality Scale.
Den kan frit anvendes ved citering af både denne oversættelse og den oprindelige skala af Linda Pannekoek et al.
Den korte Children's Locus of Causality Scale (c-PLOC) måler børns motivationer for at deltage i en aktivitet-som f.eks. en skoletime, en fritidsakti...
eSports has been growing rapidly as an extracurricular and/or educational activity in Denmark.
This poster contains descriptive statistics coded from a series of interviews with schools, showing the reasons they cite for starting programs, how eSports are integrated into the school day, and who the trainers are.
Three rough families emerge: School...
The first Danish Game-Based Learning course offered by a teachers college enrolled 42 students with a variety of backgrounds and interests in games. We characterize the students who enrolled in the course in terms of gaming literacies and preferences, and gauge the impact of the course in terms of building actionable skill sets. Following Schön (19...
https://connectedlearningsummit.org/cls2018/proceedings/
Insects are a highly sustainable and nutritious source of protein, and, thus, incorporating insects in to Western food culture is one way to address major global challenges like global warming and deforestation. Consumer studies show, however, that Westerners’ willingness to eat insect-containing food is low. One formidable barrier is the perceptio...
Psychology/culture eExpert contribution to ”The InValuable Challenge” at InnovateFood 2017 “How can we generate new and sustainable sources of high-quality food with protein from insects to meet the future protein demand?” The Challenge We challenge you to come up with creative ideas and innovative foods based on insects. Particularly with focus on...
Reviews of the literature on gamification have shown that adding game mechanics or superficial game feel to a variety of activity arenas, can engender experiences of added engagement, motivation, fun. This effect is by no means constant, but consistent enough across domains to suggest that the addition of game-elements to non-game contexts can affe...
A game based learning approach may work wonderfully in one school, and then very differently in another, shortly after.
This paper reports how one intervention lead to different outcomes depending on school setting. We combine statistical and qualitative lenses to analyze differential impact based on the social and cultural characteristics of four...
Can the challenges encountered in cooperative video games encourage classroom inclusion? And can this experience be translated into curriculum engagement? This study describes a 3 week intervention with game-based learning activities in eight lower secondary classrooms (N=190). The intervention combined the use of the coop action role-playing game...
Relatively few studieshave directly and rigorously investigated the psychological impact or dynamics of role-playing games. This chapter reviews the literature from other lenses such as play, role taking, media and games more generally, in addition to the nascent research on role-playing and LARP.
The chapter first explores role-playing from exis...
We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the ten commentaries that discuss our debate paper, the majority of which argued in favor of a formalized ICD-11 gaming disorder. We agree that there are some people whose play of video games is related to life problems. We believe that understanding this population and the nature and se...
We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the ten commentaries that discuss our debate paper, the majority of which argued in favor of a formalized ICD-11 gaming disorder. We agree that there are some people whose play of video games isrelated to life problems. We believe that understanding this population and the nature and sev...
In this talk I present data on gamification for the non-gamer demographic, including tech habits and Sherry et al's six factor game gratifications model as predictors for app adaptation and effect.
I use this to build the term "paraludic" to describe when gamefulness is psychologically appropriated into activities and motifs other than gaming.
The 2010’s board game boom is characterized by several cultural, technological and societal convergences, including a psychological desire to carve our meaningful spaces for social interaction in an increasingly digital life world. But what characterizes the interactions and social qualities of a board game compared to other shared activities? More...
[Memory hooks and experiential learning - how students remember, what happens when we leave the classroom, and the important role of the teachers] A talk given to practitioners in the ULF-network working to integrate out-of-school opportunities - from museums to on-location learning designs - with day-to-day teaching demands in Danish schools. This...
2 timers foredrag om spils psykologiske mekanismer og effekter, og hvad spil er for børn, unge og voksne anno 2016 [Mobile moms and gamer kids - psychological perspectives] Talk on the psychological mechanisms and effects of (video)games given at the Danish Psychology Educator’s annual meeting and training course 2016
There are many examples on the use of game-based learning in and outside the classroom, along with evaluation of their effect in terms of engagement, learning, classroom dynamics, concentration, motivation and enjoyment. Most of the research in this area focuses on evaluations of the use of game-based learning applications and the effect they have...
Evidence for the efficacy of gamification is still mixed, and effect data are rarely gathered in a manner that allows comparison to other equally popular behavior design approaches. This study therefore tested the relative effects of gamification, nudging and rational information as means for getting commuters to choose public transport over cars....
In order to facilitate an intuitive understanding of classical physics concepts we have developed Potential Penguin - a game where players manipulate the landscape around a sliding penguin in order to control its movement. The learning goal of Potential Penguin is to familiarize players with kinetic energy and potential energy - the energies associ...
A virtual learning environment can engage students in the learning process at
the universities in ways that the traditional lecture and lab formats can not.
We present our virtual learning environment StudentResearcher which
incorporates simulations, multiple-choice quizzes, video lectures and
gamification into a learning path for quantum mechanics...
We report on an online platform, Quantum Moves, which presents optimization
problems in quantum physics as dynamic games. These games have so far been
played 500,000 times. We observe that many of our players explore distinct
solution strategies, which outperform numerical optimization algorithms.
Combining the players' solutions with numerical met...
Differentiation is a mathematical skill applied throughout science in order to describe the change of a function with respect to a dependent variable. Thus, an intuitive understanding of differentiation is necessary to work with the mathematical frameworks used to describe physical systems in the higher levels of education. In order to obtain this...
Differentiation is a mathematical skill applied throughout science in order to describe the change of a function with respect to a dependent variable. Thus, an intuitive understanding of differentiation is necessary to work with the mathematical frameworks used to describe physical systems in the higher levels of education. In order to obtain this...
in this presentation, I discussed the promises and perils of gamifiying workplaces in relation to working environment, experience, motivation and behavior change.
Like in my previous publications, i try to distinguish between two definitions of gamification: 1.) the "broad" defintion which roughly encompasses everything that has to do with games b...
Crowdscience games may hold unique potentials as learning opportunities
compared to games made for fun or education. They are part of an actual science
problem solving process: By playing, players help scientists, and thereby
interact with real continuous research processes. This mixes the two worlds of
play and science in new ways. During usabilit...
Gamification started trending as a term around 2010 and enjoyed a rise to mainstream prominence over the following years. The trend extols the use of game elements and game thinking to support behavior and experiences in non-game contexts but has been hotly debated and is currently facing a serious limitation of evidence. This chapter critically ex...
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning (Werner Heisenberg, 1958).
A diversity of imperfection allows us to combine methods not only to gain their individual strengths but also to compensate for their individual weaknesses (Brewer and Hunter, 2006, p.17).
Games are a tricky phenomena to study. They e...
Sometimes stories about games make their way into the media. Around the year 2000 they were usu- ally about how games turns mild-mannered suburban kids into desensitized high school-shooters. But things have changed. Warnings about aggressive emotions, caricatured gender images, and detri- mental e~ects of time spent in front of a screen now compet...
The game Quantum Moves was designed to pit human players against computer algorithms, and combining their solutions into hybrid optimization to control a scalable quantum computer. In this midstream report, we open our design process and present the constitutive building stages. We present our approach starting with designing a core gameplay around...
This Ph.D. dissertation in psychology consists of two empirical studies and two theoretical analyses linking learning, games and memory.
Most of what we learn is absorbed into knowledge structures with only vague traces of how it got there. But everyone has school memories that stand out: Some mental images that readily come to life and lend themse...
Der har laenge manglet udveksling imellem hukommelsesforskning og didaktik, selvom de to felter har så oplagte forbindelser. De seneste 30 års scannerdata afslører klare forskelle på behandlingen af oplevelser og abstrakt information i hjernen, men også at disse vaeves sammen til et mere meningsorienteret hele over tid. Her drøftes disse fund med s...
Relating the emergence of religion directly to single minds has grown hopelessly out of fashion, and even though the cognitive science of culture delves deep into the human brain, we recognize that religions are first and foremost socially negotiated phenomena. All religious ideas, however, must first surface somehow. At some point in evolutionary...
Lad os starte med en lille quiz. Her følger en raekke korte udtalelser. Laes dem, og vurder med dig selv, om de hører til som vrøvl eller videnskab. Du kan finde svarene bagest i artiklen. 1. Hjernen er kun modtagelig overfor bestemte slags laering i afgraensede kritiske livsperioder 2. Efter teenageårene dannes der ingen nye hjerneceller 3. Vi bru...
During the last 5 years, the similarity between role-playing games and rituals has been mentioned in numerous articles and online discussions. This article examines that connection by using data gathered over several decades in library and information science, studies of religion, and the cognitive sciences. The authors place particular emphasis on...
We all have a few distinctive memories from school – fond or horrid, close or distant, from class or from recess. But because our minds tend to conserve space and only register new and unusual information, most days and lessons just dissolve into a blur. Therefore, autobiographical memories are usually a poor indication of what anyone has learned i...
The basic goal is to discover how the human mind/brain can allow people to relate to things that aren’t really there.
The ambitious goal is to show how these mechanisms shape religious everyday cognition, and how people’s religious lives – especially in individualistic societies such as contemporary Denmark – are defined by the constraints and aff...
Children play games, and so do many adults. What we often fail to realise is how directed and negotiated pretend play usually is, even among the smallest children. Case studies from Vivian Gussin Paley’s A Child’s Work (2004) are used to exemplify how children use techniques similar to adult role-play, such as defining characters, negotiating diege...
Questions
Questions (11)
I have been asked to help a group of high-schools construct a survey related to screen use, loneliness, stress, etc. their students.
What is the least problematic way of asking about screen use in a survey format? Both in terms of questions and answer scale.
Since a number of studies find that self-reported screen use has limited validity, this will never be a perfect approach, but I'd like it to be as valid as possible given the constraints.
The data are both intended for research purposes (hypotheses to be discussed) and to give the students a dataset to work with in Math and Civics, so nuance is very welcome.
(I will discuss covariates with the schools later, but ideally I intend to challenge "screentime" as a unitary concept, and hopefully add a uses and gratifications dimension to the data, including non-screen related factors that might affect, especially social, wellbeing).
I am teaching a new graduate level course on theory of science and research design with a group of colleagues.
In order to find a fair distribution of methods lessons, I'd like to refer to a good review/overview of the proportions/percentages of methods used in papers published in psychology and/or education research.
For instance, what is the proportion/percentages of qualitative vs. quantitative vs. mixed methods papers (respectively), and/or particular methodologies within these larger paradigms/families?
This would seem like a reasonable starting point for discussion.
Where can I find such an overview?
We are planning a study to compare a set of specific daily motivations between job families.
We will be developing a survey specifically for the constructs we are interested in using combination of grounded analysis and PCA in a larger sample, but we would like to compare our results to existing instruments and/or to be able to base our constructs on elements that have already appeared in the context of work motivation.
I have used various intrinsic motivation-based surveys in the past, so I would especially like something on specific intrinsic / extrinsic motivators at work - that is, not just whether the job as a whole is motivating.
I have a background in mixed methods and experimental research, but this is my first real foray in to work/organizational psychology so a bit of help to get started would go a long way!
We are doing quantitative research on play habits at work and in people's free time.
This includes a series of frequency questions like "How often do you play xxxgame typexxx while at work"...at home.. etc.
I've done sthis before, but recently I've been looking for a broadly accepted frequency scale to use, but to no avail.
I don't want "very rarely, very frequently" because it's too abstract/impriecise. An open number format won't really fit either, as some participants may legitimately answer once or twice a year while others play multiple times a day.
I've arrived at something like this, but somehow it doesn't "feel right"
- Never
- Once or twice a year
- Once or twice a month
- Once or twice a week
- Many times a week
- Every day
- Many times a day
Does this look reasonable? How would you react to it as a survey taker? As a reviewer?
Are there any good standards (ideally with a reference) for this kind of question? Alternatively, have you published similar research with a frequency scale that worked well for you?
I'm looking for the correct way to reference the oft-quoted unpublished paper starting "THERE ARE IDIOTS. look around" by Larry Summers.
We are starting a new research project, and will be looking into a lot of different ways to observe and assess properties of play and playful learning. Part of this will feed into equipping and advising an all new physical labfor studying play and playful products.
Coming from a game studies background, I have a lot of experience when it comes to experiments and observations with gaming, but less when we are talking about play in a broader sense.
I am asking a very open question at this point, as we are still trying to hone in on as many interesting approaches as possible. We are committed to covering (but not exclusively):
- Qualitative observations and schemes
- Quantitative measures, including instruments and experimental setups
- Physiological measures and other ways of collecting data from/with technologies - from brain based approaches to mobile sensors and native data
- And of course approaches that transcend and combine the above.
Any and all inspiration will be welcomed - including words of warning and insights into failed approaches. What we are mainly looking for is tools and methods, as well as the theories behind them.
The "dopamine argument" is one of the most enduring claims in texts about the effects of games and gamification.
The popular idea simplifies the functions of dopamine in the organism, by presenting it as a "reward molecule". As scientists we are aware that this is a gross simplification. Yet it is a highly persistent claim, which we'd like to test in order to address the central claims in the popular discourse head on.
I am aware that the dopaminergic system can be monitored using e.g. PET, and I have found several references on the web about measuring it in blood samples, but are these viable ways of testing responses to e.g. game experiences?
The setup would be a factorial design or a RCT with game-elements as the 'treatment', and measures of game behavior plus subjectives experience as supportive DVs in addition to dopamine levels.
How could something like this be achieved? And is the idea realistic?
I am an affiliated researcher at the Aarhus University Cognition and Behvaior Lab (http://bss.au.dk/research/research-labs/cognition-and-behavior-lab/).
We have some very good resources, but have also been looking into new and emerging gear, including high-end mobile EEG solutions (we're running comparison studies with cheaper commercial versions versus lab-grade stationary hoods) and fNIRS, but we don't want to devote >80.000 euros to equipment we might only use once or twice.
This leads me to wonder:
- Are there any networks or channels for coming to other labs to do studies, or lending out equipment to colleagues?
- Perhaps with the help of colleagues who know their way around the tools and techniques?
I imagine visiting to borrow labs for a study is easy, as long as equipment and facilities are unused anyway, and someone is ready to play host. There's a potential gain for all involved in visiting talks, co-authorship, networking, new co-funding opportunities, etc.. Shipping expensive equipment around would be more tricky, and require some kind of legal arrangements and insurance.
I am mostly interested in equipment and techniques for experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience and behavioral economics, but the question is a general one.
