Motivation and game research continue to demonstrate that the implementation of game design characteristics in the classroom can be engaging and intrinsically motivating. The present study assessed the extent to which an industrial organizational psychology course designed learning environment created with meaningful gamification elements can improve student perceptions of learning, course experience, and learning outcomes compared to a traditional course. A mixed analysis of covariance revealed that those in the gamified condition showed significantly higher perceptions of learning, engagement, and motivation than those in the traditional course. This research suggests that students can learn just as effectively as traditional courses but have more favorable and positive experiences in the course through more, novel, interactive teaching methods. Future research implications are discussed.

The effect of self-affirmation on reasoning biases was explored. After participants wrote about a value that was important to them (self-affirmation) or a value that was not important to them (no affirmation), they tested a hypothesis using a task commonly used to study the confirmation bias (Study 1) and assessed correlation from data presented in a 2 x 2 frequency table (Study 2). In both tasks, participants assessed the validity of a hypothesis that had either threatening or nonthreatening implications for their self-concepts. Nonaffirmed participants who tested threatening hypotheses exhibited the confirmation bias less frequently (Study 1) and assessed correlation more accurately (Study 2) than self-affirmed participants or participants who tested nonthreatening hypotheses. Results support models of motivated reasoning that propose that information processing is altered in response to threatening information. By ameliorating the threat, self-affirmations can elicit less effective reasoning strategies.

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This study tested the effectiveness of video game use for instruction of factorial designs in a research methods course. Students designed and conducted a mini study, playing Dance, Dance, Revolution, using video game scores as the dependent variable. A mixed-design analysis of variance revealed a significantly greater increase from pretest to posttest in content knowledge in the Wii activity condition compared to lecture-only and no-content control conditions. Implementing this nontraditional teaching method engaged students and increased knowledge of factorial designs in a research method course.

The role of negative affect as a potential causal mechanism underlying the tendency for prior attitudes to bias evaluations of scientific information was investigated using a misattribution of affect manipulation. Participants read scientific studies that disconfirmed prior beliefs. Half the participants were given the opportunity to misattribute any negative affect to poor room conditions (Study 1) or caffeinated water (Study 2). All participants then evaluated the methodological quality of the scientific information. Those in the misattribution condition evaluated the information more positively than those in the control condition. In Study 2, no differences were found for participants reading confirming information. The role of affect in attitude resistance is discussed.A strong attitude colors judgments about the quality of information that confirms or disconfirms beliefs that support the attitude. Belief-confirming information is evaluated favorably, while belief-disconfirming information is evaluated unfavorably. This biased assimilation of information allows a person to maintain the belief and the attitude in the face of disconfirming information. Even scientific methods can be differentially evaluated depending on the results. Belief-confirming scientific results are valued and used to garner further support for the attitude, while beliefdisconfirming results are denigrated and dismissed. The current research examined one factor, negative affect, that may play a causal role in the biasing effect of strong attitudes on evaluations of scientific information. Biased Evaluations of Attitude-relevant Scientific InformationCoining the term biased assimilation, Lord, Ross, and Lepper (1979) demonstrated that proponents and opponents of capital punishment differentially evaluated two scientific studies revealing opposing results and conclusions regarding the deterrent efficacy of capital punishment. Importantly, the methodology and results were