Can a video game with a fictional minority group decrease intergroup biases towards non-fictional minorities? A social neuroscience study.

A critical scientific and societal challenge consists in developing and evaluating interventions that reduce prejudice towards outgroups. Video games appear to be a promising method but a number of falls in the current scientific literature prevents to fully understand the potential sizeable impact of video games on reducing prejudice. The present study investigated to what extent a video game designed to reduce prejudice towards minorities in a fictional society has the potential to reduce prejudice towards non-fictional minorities. Participants played either a recently developed game (Horns of Justice, HoJ) designed to reduce prejudice towards non-fictional minorities or a control game. After playing at home, participants performed two tasks in a lab context. We observed an overall positive effect of playing HoJ compared to the control game on attenuating prejudice towards an outgroup individual. We indeed observed that players of the control game had more midfrontal theta activity, reflecting more cognitive conflict, when they acted prosociality towards the outgroup participant and a lower neural response to the pain of the outgroup participant compared to the ingroup participant. These effects were attenuated for players of HoJ. We also observed that players of HoJ had a higher sense of agency when they decided to help the outgroup participant compared to when they did not help the outgroup participant, an effect not observable in players of the control game. These results are promising as they support evidence that using fictional characters in video game may induce positive changes on non-fictional individuals.

Design and Validity of Interactive Multimedia Based on Cognitive Conflict on Static Fluid Using Adobe Animate CC 2019

This study aims to produce valid cognitive conflict-based interactive multimedia. This study uses the Plomp development model, which reports the results of the preliminary study and the prototyping phase. In the preliminary phase, five journals were analyzed and data were collected through teacher questionnaires. In the prototyping phase, multimedia is designed and self-evaluation is carried out and data collection is carried out through expert review questionnaires. The results of the journal analysis show that students' misconceptions about static fluid material are quite high. The results of the questionnaire show that learning is still teacher-centered, and interactive multimedia teaching materials are not yet available that can improve understanding of 4C concepts and skills. Based on the results of the preliminary research, in the prototyping phase, interactive multimedia based on cognitive conflict was designed using the Adobe Animate cc 2019 application. Interactive multimedia was arranged according to 4 syntaxes of cognitive conflict-based learning models, namely activation of preconceptions and misconceptions, presentation of cognitive conflicts, discovery of concepts and similarities, and reflection. . Each syntax is designed to improve students' conceptual understanding and 4C skills. The results of the interactive multimedia prototype self-evaluation obtained very good criteria. The results of the prototype validity test obtained a very valid category. Interactive multimedia has been valid in material substance, learning design, visual communication display, and software utilization.

Distinct Brain Mechanisms for Conflict Adaptation within and across Conflict Types

Cognitive conflict, like other cognitive processes, shows the characteristic of adaptation, that is, conflict effects are attenuated when immediately following a conflicting event, a phenomenon known as the conflict adaptation effect (CAE). One important aspect of CAE is its sensitivity to the intertrial coherence of conflict type, that is, behavioral CAE occurs only if consecutive trials are of the same conflict type. Although reliably observed behaviorally, the neural mechanisms underlying such a phenomenon remains elusive. With a paradigm combining the classic Simon task and Stroop task, this fMRI study examined neural correlates of conflict adaptation both within and across conflict types. The results revealed that when the conflict type repeated (but not when it alternated), the CAE-like neural activations were observed in dorsal ACC, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), superior parietal lobe, and so forth (i.e., regions within typical task-positive networks). In contrast, when the conflict type alternated (but not when it repeated), we found CAE-like neural deactivations in the left superior frontal gyri (i.e., a region within the typical task-negative network). Network analyses suggested that the regions of ACC, IFG, superior parietal lobe, and superior frontal gyrus can be clustered into two antagonistic networks, and the ACC–IFG connection was associated with the within-type CAE. This evidence suggests that our adaptation to cognitive conflicts within a conflict type and across different types may rely on these two distinct neural mechanisms.

Sources of Cognitive Conflict and Their Relevance to Theory-of-Mind Proficiency in Healthy Aging: A Preregistered Study

Age-related decline in theory of mind (ToM) may be due to waning executive control, which is necessary for resolving conflict when reasoning about other individuals’ mental states. We assessed how older ( n = 50) and younger ( n = 50) adults were affected by three theoretically relevant sources of conflict within ToM: competing self-other perspectives, competing cued locations, and outcome knowledge. We examined which best accounted for age-related difficulty with ToM. Our data show unexpected similarity between age groups when people are representing a belief incongruent with their own. Individual differences in attention and response speed best explained the degree of conflict experienced through incompatible self-other perspectives. However, older adults were disproportionately affected by managing conflict between cued locations. Age and spatial working memory were most relevant for predicting the magnitude of conflict elicited by conflicting cued locations. We suggest that previous studies may have underestimated older adults’ ToM proficiency by including unnecessary conflict in ToM tasks.

Design and Validity of Cognitive Conflict-Based Teaching Materials Integrating Virtual Laboratories to Improve Concept Understanding of Waves

Learning physics shows that students' understanding of concepts is still low, and there are misconceptions. One solution to overcome this problem is to create conflict-cognitive-based physics teaching materials that integrate virtual laboratories. The purpose of this research was to produce valid cognitive conflict teaching materials. The type of research was development research using the Plomp model. The preliminary research instruments were in the form of concept tests and questionnaires. Meanwhile, a self-evaluation sheet was used at the development stage, and a validation sheet used three validators. The self-evaluation data analysis technique used percentage techniques, while the validity used the Aiken's V formula. At the preliminary research stage, it was found that more than 30% of students experienced misconceptions, and 40% of students did not understand the concept. From questionnaires to teachers, it was found that learning was still teacher-centred, and ICT facilities had not been used optimally. At the development stage, a prototype of teaching materials was designed using the cognitive conflict-based learning model stages. The self-evaluation test results obtained a score of 85, which was categorized as very good, while in the expert review test, the value of all components was 0.81 was categorized as very valid and capable of being tested for practicality and effectiveness tests in learning.

The practice of the Investigation process: the impact of cognitive conflict on the improvement of the training of concept «Composition of inspired air and expired air» for the pupils of primary cycle.

The first one left this research concerns the place of cognitive conflict in the Investigation on the alert scientific at the level of primary education. The second part is interested in the impact of cognitive conflict on the improvement of training. The methodology rests the basics on a question put down to the pupils of sixth primary year in different Tunisian schools by the way the composition of air which they inspire and that of the air which is expired. Answers given by the pupils show well that there is a problem linked to previous erroneous conception. Our research aims at improving the training of this concept by cognitive conflict. Therefore, we worked out for the pupils an experience based on observation and text given to every pupil allowing a cognitive conflict and objective is to cause a conceptual change. Obtained results show a positive impact of cognitive conflict on the acquisition of this concept and training improvement.