Hello guys,

So basically my approach to game mechanics is to understand which cognitive and motor functions of our brains are being called upon when we engage in particular activities. With this simple mobile game called 'into the circle', I was wondering if there are specific names for the motor/cognifive functions that are engaged with when we play this game. Heres a video:

So in particular im focusing on the arrow that interpolates between two points. So the first challenge is accuracy and lining up the line with the circle. First of all is this a Cognitive or Motor skill that is being engaged (Or both? - I assume cognitive)? And if so, is there a name for the specific aspect of the skill that's being engaged? I'm curious if anyone here knows...

The second challenge is more like a calculation of the distance of the next circle (Cognitive I assume?) then understanding what quantity of power is required to land the ball within the circle... (I assume this is cognitive aswell?)

Something tells me that these are all cognitive challenges and the only motor challenge is tapping and holding (No calculation involved).

Id love any advice anyone could give.

Thank ye

I found this list http://sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/12/18/what-are-cognitive-abilities/ , I've found that the executive functions closely relate to what I have... Anticipation for the first one. Can any1 plz confirm? What's the second 1?

i understand science now tells us that the intestines have more neurons than the brain.. or something like that :)

the division between motor and cognitive ... does nature honour this distinction? it's an interesting abstract because it allows us to conjecture from there, but any step forward is also a step away.. this abstraction may be occluding our awareness of events that do not fit the criteria.

@XOXOS

Is that so?

I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean, but from what I've just read, 'nature' does not infact honour this distinction as apparently motor is defined as a sub-category of cognition (In other words, motor skills are of cognitive influence)... surely we can make distinctions of the cognitive functions that game mechanics can engage with It would make it much easier and more managable to set up other gameplay agents for that optimum gameplay experience...

help me out br0 pleaze

It has been way too much time since I've had my HCI training but I just wanted to say I totally liked this.

waa I didn't know such a thing existed (HCI) Imma research dis

i smoke too much weed to believe in science (experience and intelligent enough to realise that the non-western world is dead on with epistemological solipsism expressed in buddhism et c.) the problem to me is that because we use technology to create various energy spectra, our scope of awareness in the west has accordingly narrowed to fit the scope of expression...

in my opinion, proposing or employing a model of consciousness is useful for art, but rotten for life and understanding.. and especially rotten when enough people believe it that they start condeming cultures that function outside of this scope/when it becomes culturally authoritative (like when 20 game programmers all read the same article).

if we use a motor/cognitive analysis of event, it makes it hard to appreciate events that occur outside of the two... it's good for fun, but insufficient for perception/appraisal.

what else could there be? if someone were to tell you, it might inhibit your ability to notice :)

Motor skill specifically refers to moving any part of your body in any way. Whenever you use any of your muscles to make a movement, that's a motor skill. That includes simple movements like moving your eyes, blinking, moving your tongue ... The only kind of game that would not require motor skills would be a game that takes the input directly from your brain.

Any skill that requires logical thinking is a cognitive intelligence skill. Cognitive intelligence is what is measured in IQ tests.

Any skill that requires logically thinking about emotions and/or social concepts is an emotional intelligence skill.

Any skill that requires intuitively understanding emotions and/or social concepts is a social intelligence skill.

What exactly do you hope to learn for game design from this?

where there is certainty,

consideration is absent ;)

the thing i would least like to be certain about then, is my self definition.

when your body moves, are you always certain it is a motor response? really? (true, your culture gives you no other "validated" terms to acknowledge anything otherwise..)

convictions make convicts....

of course, believing things are one way is very good for interfacing and being received by society. personally, i prefer not to let society define the nature of existence. i just don't trust other people to have done it all before me, and i find it sort of tragic when others do. forgive me if i am not able to make tangible a supermaterial universe to a materialist.

when your body moves, are you always certain it is a motor response? really?

For the sake of clarity for anyone else: Any time you voluntarily contract a muscle (which moves a body part), that is by definition a motor skill. The more muscles you contract for a movement, the more complex the motor skill. Contracting large muscles or muscle groups (i.e., your arms, legs, neck, torso) is called a gross motor skill. Contracting small muscles or muscles groups (i.e., fingers, blinking, etc.) is called a fine motor skill. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_skill

A voluntary movement of a body part is called a motor skill like a round plane figure whose boundary consists of points equidistant from a fixed point is called a circle. Motor skill is simply the name we use to refer to a voluntary movement.