Join Dr Ben Dyson (@benjdyson.bsky.social) this Friday 13th March 12 noon for a playful Teaching Seminar session BS P226 "Can we teach concepts via game actions? Collaborators vs. innovators in the novel card game Shape" @ualberta.bsky.social

Please join the Re: Cognition at Poster Session E 123 and 126 #CNS2026- Eunchan and Yajing are ready to take your questions! @psychualberta.bsky.social

Dr Ben Dyson PSYCH 353: The Psychology of Board Games Tuesday, Feb. 10 | 12:30 - 1:50 p.m.

A highlight of this year was being invited by the Esker Foundation to write a piece on Babak Golkar's recent exhibition When Sound Becomes Unsound. Read 'Please Do Not Touch The Artwork Beyond This Point' below @psychualberta.bsky.social permanentcollection.eskerfoundation.com/essays/pleas...

Call for Nominations for Editor of Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology (2026-2030) The Board of Directors of the CPA has opened nominations for the Editorship of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology for the years 2026 through 2030. More information: buff.ly/BOdMS9S

The Hidden History of Women Game Designers daily.jstor.org/the-hidden-h...

We are live at @ualberta.bsky.social Open House! Lab tours at 10am and 2pm, Psychology presentation at 12 noon. Come by and say hi!

Applications for MA, MSc and PhD programs in Psychology @ualberta.bsky.social are now open! For application information and FAQ, please visit our website below. Deadline December 1st. Join us! www.ualberta.ca/en/psycholog...

I was extremely happy to contribute to this article about the use of off-the-shelf board games in the classroom. Thank you @keithlaw.bsky.social for the invite!

for @endlessmode.bsky.social I spoke to a number of educators about how and why they're using off-the-shelf board games in the classroom, and what games they've used successfully with students from primary school to college: www.endlessmode.com/article/how-...

All table reservations for fine Takoyaki dining at #FallCon25 are fully booked! Although our restaurant is at capacity for scheduled opening hours, walk-ins may be accepted- just come by and say hi!

A great new GameTek Post by @gengelstein.bsky.social‬ (hope you had a nice birthday Geoff!) regarding a YouGov poll on the non-random selection of options during chance situations. The cool thing is each of the three findings discussed replicate previously observed findings! Here we go…

Some huge games of Tenure Track going down at #BerlinBrettSpiel25! Thanks to all the fantastic playtesters who came by today.

Tenure Track is live at Table 16 in Prototype Alley at #BerlinBrettSpiel25. Come by and say hi!

@fallconyyc.bsky.social playtesting times for my 2025 Canadian Game Design Award #CDGA finalist Takoyaki have been announced. Sign up via Cardboard Events and I look forward to showing you the game! Friday 22nd August 1pm - 3pm Friday 22nd August 3pm - 5pm Saturday 23rd August 12pm - 2pm

Received Playtesting Best Practices by Chris Backe as part of @gengelstein.bsky.social Guides To Tabletop Game Design Nice to see the concept of 'double coding'- in Cognitive Psychology we call this 'redundancy gain': better discrimination when objects differ on 2 (rather than 1) features

What can games tell us about science? What can science tell us about games? New @cognitionjournal.bsky.social paper @psychualberta.bsky.social @ualberta.bsky.social "Evaluating commercial game design decisions via the scientification of games" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... (1/3) 👇

My Canadian Game Design Award 2025 Finalist prototype 'Takoyaki' is now on its way to the CGDA judges. And not a moment too soon according to the file status of my rule book... @fallconyyc.bsky.social

Two new books have just been published in myh series Guides To Tabletop Game Design! Worldbuilding from Steve Dee and Playtesting Best Practices from Chris Backe both give nuanced, and insightful coverage of their topics from noted experts. Please check them out! www.routledge.com/CRC-Press-Gu...

Saturday at #SARMAC2025 (8:45am; Boardroom 1) I'll be contributing to Teaching About Research in Memory & Cognition (TARMAC) @psychualberta.bsky.social @ualberta.bsky.social 'Assessing the replicability of Cognitive Psychology during remote experiential learning via mobile phone technology'

An extremely fun morning at #LinCon25 playtesting Tenure Track as a finalist for the Swedish Annual Game Award (Anvil Category). Looking forward to seeing some of the other finalists this afternoon! @psychualberta.bsky.social

Very fun playtesting session of Tenure Track this afternoon as part of the Festival of Teaching and Learning, including some critical feedback regarding resource management...

Looking forward to hosting a few sessions at the 2025 Festival of Teaching and Learning tomorrow (14 May) at University of Alberta a) 10:15 am - 11:15 am ECHA 1-490 Overcoming a barrier in the use of games in education via the use of a generic card game system allowing for specific content overlay

New study from the Women in Supramolecular Chemistry (WISC) revealing the unique challenges resulting from being First Gen (first generation of a family to access Higher Education) in science and showing how these persist at every stage of a career in academia: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Thanks to #AGRI25 for hosting such a fun and interesting conference @banffcentre.bsky.social. Lots of great conversations in spectacular surroundings! Here are Yajing and Eunchan doing an amazing job representing @psychualberta.bsky.social

Thanks to Grade 3 and Grade 5 Norwood School for stopping by @psychualberta.bsky.social today for some #USchool. Lots of budding scientists asking lots of great questions!

Third and final game showcased #UnPub25 Total Chaos (2 Computationalists; 30 mins) Promo video: youtube.com/watch?v=I7wB... See you there!

Second game at #UnPub25 is Double Creature Feature (2-4 Casting Agents; 30 mins) Promo video: youtube.com/watch?v=1loE...

Getting ready for #Unpub25 Tenure Track (2-4 Researchers; 120 mins) Play as competing researchers who need to succeed in Academia in this medium-to-heavy Euro Promo video here: youtube.com/watch?v=7bY6...

This year will be my first UnPub and I will be actively seeking feedback on three games. It would be great to meet some of your virtual folks in person! Design descriptions and times below:

Know someone who is a fantastic mentor to 🇨🇦 women in cognitive science? Nominate them for the @wicscanada.bsky.social 2025 Mentorship Award: wicsc.ca/wp-content/u...

UAlberta students have an ongoing podcast called Behind the Labs on science topics ranging from biology to medicine to AI and more. A recent episode featured our own @benjdyson.bsky.social discussing his research on decision making in games. Listen here! open.spotify.com/episode/4ER1...

Read all about it! Our own Dr Ben Dyson features in The Quad on how games can be used to gain new perspectives on human behaviour and cognitive processes @benjdyson.bsky.social www.ualberta.ca/en/the-quad/...

Would you like to learn about The Psychology of Board Games in Germany this summer and attend Berlin BrettSpiel Con 2025? @psychualberta.bsky.social e3 is open to ALL post-secondary students and non-University of Alberta students should apply! Apply before Feb 2 www.ualberta.ca/en/internati...

A piece I wrote as part of my Valentine-Cosman Research Fellowship at The Museum of Play on the relationships between sound and colour in the electronic game Simon www.museumofplay.org/blog/stimulu...

Congrats to Yajing Zhang for winning a #AGES2024 award https://bit.ly/3DaUO8E#AGES2024! Her research explores decision-making and learning in simple games, with a focus on the effects of reinforcement, punishment, and goal proximity. Yajing is in Dr. @bendyson 's Re:Cognition Lab 1/2

Tenure Track has been nominated as a finalist in the Anvil Category (heavy design) for the 2025 Swedish Annual Game Award #SAGA Lots of work and playtesting to do before then but congratulations to all the finalists! Lots of intriguing designs here: saga.boardgamedesign.se/sida/finalis...

Teaching research skills? Make it fun and impactful with How to Fail Your Research Degree! This game helps students navigate the chaos of academic research in a safe-to-fail environment. Watch the video! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmAc... howtofailyourresearchdegree.com #ResearchSkills #HigherEd #GBL

I am Guest Editor for a Special Issue of CJEP @cjep.bsky.social: Experimenting With Games I hope to curate a diverse range of papers examining intersections between games and psychology. Expression of interest: Feb 15 2025 Details below: apa.org/pubs/journal...

Paper call for a forthcoming special issue of CJEP: Experimenting With Games Guest Editor Dr Ben Dyson @benjdyson.bsky.social Expression of interest deadline: February 15 2025 Full papers submission deadline: November 1 2025 Details below: www.apa.org/pubs/journal...

PSYCH 302 / 305 The Psychology of Board Games returns to Berlin next Summer 2025! Check out the #e3Berlin page below, for information on dates, application procedures and funding opportunities! www.ualberta.ca/en/internati...

Calling all researchers, educators and players interested in the intersection between games, science and STEM! I have 10 copies of the computational card game Total Chaos to send anywhere in the world for FREE.

A brief sighting of prototype Double Creature Feature at #fallcon on Global News globalnews.ca/video/embed/...

As well as CGDA finalist Crate Diggin', I'm also bringing Double Creature Feature to FallCon. It's an easy-to-learn tile-matching game with oodles of scary strategy! Book a seat at Prototype Alley Fri 23 Aug 1pm, 2pm [PA-E3] Sat 24 Aug 10am [PA-E4]

I'm bringing my Canadian Game Design Award finalist Crate Diggin' to FallCon this year! It would be awesome if you came by to say hi. Fri 23 Aug 4pm, 5:30pm [PA-E1] Sat 24 Aug 11am [PA-E4] Here's a sneak preview youtube.com/watch?v=wIFu...

Our new Frontiers For Young Minds article: How Do Simple Games Help Us Understand Decision Making? Special thanks to reviewers Julia (8), Etta (10) and the Las Vegas Kittie Cats (9-13)! kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....

I'm bringing the Canadian Game Design Award finalist- Crate Diggin'- & a brand new design- Double Creature Feature- to Prototype Alley FallCon37. It would be awesome if you came by to say hi! Details and times below

Please join us in extending a huge thank you to outgoing Departmental Chair Dr Anthony Singhal and a huge welcome to incoming Departmental Chair Dr Wendy Hoglund!

The Department of Psychology is delighted to host The Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS / SCSCCC) today until Thursday 27th June. Registration opens 12 noon in the PCL Lounge!

Thank you NSERC / CRSNG for the Discovery Grant one-year COVID extension. An amazing federal initiative for the continued support of Canadian brain research