WEBVTT - Better Living Through Tetris 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stop 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:14.720 works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stop to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.119 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. In 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.240 Today's episode is part two of a two part episode 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.640 about the science of Tetris, really the science of Tetris, 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:28.880 get also the history and philosophy of Tetris, because, as 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.320 I said in the last episode, I have a very 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.479 very strong intuition that Tetris is not just an invented 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.200 artifact of the work of human hands and human minds, 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:45.120 but is somehow a natural, fundamental outgrowth of the phantasmagorical 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:50.199 blood magic of the universe. It comes from the cosmos itself. 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.160 It's not just something we made. It was here, and 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:59.400 in nineteen four the creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, discovered it. 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.720 I like that the idea of discovering Tetris as this, uh, 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:09.320 this sort of dimension of of mathematical perfection, Yeah, underlying 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.200 reality totally. And in the last episode we talked a 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.560 little bit about that, about where Tetris came from and 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.800 its influences, and then about the Tetris effect. This uh, 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:22.320 this syndrome, this experience commonly reported by Tetris players, where 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.360 they where it sort of takes over their minds. They 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.640 see Tetris in everything throughout the world, They hallucinate it, 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.600 they dream about it, And we talked about some possible 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:36.000 explanations for that, as well as how Tetris skills develop 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.759 in the brain and the interesting fact that that people 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:44.960 who cannot form episodic memories can still form hallucination recall 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:50.040 for Tetris that counterintuitively, expert Tetris players use less brain 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.480 energy than novice Tetris players at higher levels of play. 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.880 So there's a lot that's very fascinating and weird and 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:01.320 mysterious about the game Tetris itself. But today we wanted 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:05.040 to talk about how some of this science of tetris, uh, 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.359 how it works as a game, and how Tetris can 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:13.160 be used to solve problems in the real world. Yeah, 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.760 and a lot of this, uh the first portion of 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.880 this episode, a lot of it relates to just why 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.520 do we love it? So? Why is it so satisfying 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.480 to play tetris? Um and uh, and the the science 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:27.679 behind us is it's a lot more interesting than you 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.080 might think. It's it it goes pretty deep into just 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.239 how we think and how we process the world. Absolutely, 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.079 So if you haven't listened to part one, go back 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.359 listen to part one, uh first, and then come and 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.600 join us again here where we will continue the cosmic 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.960 journey of Tetris and clear those lines again and again 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:51.760 and again. All right, So why do we love Tetris? 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:53.720 Why don't we play it so much? Why did it 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.160 have such an impact to begin with? Well, we should 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.799 back up and ask why we play any games so much? 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.120 Why do we love any game? I mean, as we 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:05.040 observed in the last episode, there there's a difference between 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.680 a really good game and a not so good game. 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:10.720 And it's not just I mean, these days a lot 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.280 of people might refer to things because of the complexity 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.800 of games on newer generations, and things like graphics and 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.400 story and you know, because you have these action adventure 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.600 games that are that are so complex and all that. 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.200 There's more, you're immersing yourself in a an unreal world. 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.320 Yeah yeah, yeah, So ignoring all that and just getting 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:34.320 back to the basics of simple types of games and gameplay, 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:39.880 puzzle games. Uh, playing Tetris versus playing I don't know, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:44.320 what's another early puzzle game, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game, 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:49.520 on which did really exist. Don't don't bother looking at it, 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.680 field just get sad. Yeah, w wanted. Why are these games? So? 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.000 Why don't we immerse ourselves in? And how does this work? 0:03:56.120 --> 0:04:00.720 One idea that seems pretty strongly supported is that very 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:05.360 rewarding and enjoyable game play and game mechanics come from 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:09.640 the psychological process that's been described under the term cognitive 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:16.400 flow flow. Yeah. Yeah, at heart, any good game is 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:20.479 tapping into cognitive flow. As Sean Baron broke down in 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.360 a two thousand twelve Gama Sutra article, it breaks down 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.159 as follows and Tetris boils this down perfectly to a 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.680 highly concentrated mental gaming experience. You have concrete goals and 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:37.960 manageable rules, plus goals that fit player capabilities, plus clear 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:42.080 and timely feedback, plus an elimination of distractions, and this 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.960 equals cognitive flow. Yeah. So it's a game essentially where 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.760 you understand how to play, You can play, you have 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:55.000 the skill. It's yet it's challenging enough that it's not boring. 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.840 You're constantly getting feedback on how well you're doing, and 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:03.320 there's not extreme a stuff going on. It's just perfect focus, 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:08.960 zeroing in on a perfect brain consuming task that is 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.960 just challenging enough to always keep you engaged. Yeah. Now 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.080 that's not to say that cognitive flow is just a 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.000 result of gaming EXPERI yeah, we cure it in our 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.760 daily lives. Be it in your work if you're lucky, 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.159 or you know, in your hobbies, or even in just 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.839 random chores that you have down, you know, skill wise. 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.760 Um in the term itself comes from psychologist Mihi. Chick 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.680 sent me high, the Hungarian psychology professor who pioneered the 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.200 study of cognitive flow. I like this guy's research. I've 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:42.880 read about it before, and it's interesting to me because 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.640 this is what people would, I think often call positive psychology. 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.480 So much of what is studied in psychology or psychiatry 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:56.560 deals with people who are having less than optimal experiences. 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:59.920 And this is an attempt to study, well, what's going 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.320 on when humans are just really at their peak mental experience, 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.160 when they're feeling great, when things are going well inside 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.839 their heads. What's happening there? And and and the thing he 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.279 identified is that a key to a sort of happy 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:19.560 existence or a happy experience is this process of flow. Yeah, indeed, 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:21.960 and uh, you know, it's interesting looking back to the 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:26.840 previous episode where the stick Gold study started off and 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.799 ended up getting into the Tetris area by considering people 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.320 who engaged in um in rock climbing, and then they 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:37.800 would perceive rock climbing later. Uh and and overall his 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.040 study was about looking at people who engage in novel 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.800 physical or mental activities for extended periods of time and 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.240 how they often experienced a hallucinatory replay of the activity. 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.200 And with the check semi hi, we see rock climbing 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.760 come up again because as an avid rock climber, that's 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.800 where he first took note of this special feeling in 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.200 his own experience that he got while inching his way 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.960 up at challenging rock face. He began thinking about it 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.760 in terms of his psychology studies, and he laid it 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:08.800 out pretty much as we've been discussing that flow is 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:13.720 about having set goals, having uh a self contained universe. 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.480 So you especially see this in gaming right where they're 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.920 something like Tetris. The rules, the space, it's all pretty 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:24.120 well defined. There's there's less ambiguity. You get immediate feedback 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.600 if you're doing it right. Contains a manageable challenge. It's hard, 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.240 but you can do it. Sense of control over the situation, 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.040 at least until you reach the upper levels uh, And 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:37.920 you're completely involved in what you're doing. And so this 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:42.760 results in a sense of ecstasy um, great interclarity, a 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.600 confidence that what you're doing is doable, and then you 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.240 have the skills to tackle it, a sense of serenity, 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.640 a sense of timelessness, and intrinsic motivation to keep going. 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.720 It becomes fun in itself. I mean, there's no reason 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.480 you have to play a tetrisa. You know, nobody, nobody's 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.640 give being you tangible rewards or punishments based on how 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.520 many lines you clear. But it becomes intrinsically motivating. There's 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.880 something about the activity itself that's pleasing enough that you 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:12.920 have to go on. And it shuts down the chatter 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.120 and your brain. It shuts down that default mode network, 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.160 all those little voices and the that are worrying about 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:23.000 the path or the future. It all goes dull as 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.440 your brain uh tackles the problem at hand, be it 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.080 climbing a rock, working on an article, mowing the yard, 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.600 or playing tetris. Yeah, totally. So if you look at 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.760 all of the conditions that must be present to create 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:40.080 the optimal sense of flow. I think Tetris is almost 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.400 perfectly designed to satisfy them. Like, it's hard to think 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:49.040 of a cleaner distillation of exactly what those conditions are. 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:54.280 The clear goals, stack them, clear lines, manageable rules, it's 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.439 absolutely clear what's going on in Tetris. Uh. Tetris adjusts 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.400 itself to your capability. So at the beginning it's easy. Uh. 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.720 If you are a very good player, you can move 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:09.120 up to higher difficulties pretty quickly. Gives you an adjustment period. 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.040 But the difficulty changes and tracks with you as you play. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.440 You know, as you go up higher, you get farther, 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.840 it gets harder and more challenging. There's feedback and that 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.319 you can like. The music is an interesting feedback thing 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.559 in Texas, Texas, I say Texas again. In Tetris. As 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.200 you keep stacking higher, I don't know if you remember that, 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.760 the music gets faster. It's letting you know, okay. And 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:36.520 of course there's very obvious visual feedback. You know, you 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.960 you can clearly see as you're getting towards the ceiling 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.120 of the screen, this is not what you want and 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.880 what is there that's extraneous, I mean nothing, It's it's 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:51.320 all there. And uh, and of course it works even 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.040 better if you can just uh sort of like put 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.840 a black blanket over your head and tape your eyes 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.360 directly to the Tetris screen and so that nobody can 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:03.680 walk in and say, like, hey, there's a fire, you 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.160 need to have activate the building. I mean, you just 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.720 you're there, You're in the zone. But there's some other 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.839 theories we've come across that that help explain exactly why 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.880 Tetris feels like such a perfect game for our brains. 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.959 And one of the ones I wanted to mention was 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:25.440 actually something I saw alluded to in a brain Craft video. 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.000 Some of our periscope followers. We were talking to him 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.040 last Friday, and we mentioned that we were going to 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.000 do this episode and they said, oh, you should watch 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.200 the Braincraft videos. So there, I think they're PBS. Yea 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:38.600 PBS is behind it. I watched this as well. I 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.640 was entertaining, yeah, and so they but they mentioned something 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.280 called the Zigarnic effect in reference to Tetris. So what 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.400 is the deal with this? Okay, so the Zigarnic effect 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.679 comes to us again. We looked to UH to Soviet thinking. 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.720 Here it comes from Soviet to psychologist and psychiatrist Bluma 0:10:55.800 --> 0:11:00.280 Wolvovna Zigarnick. She lived from nineteen dred to nineteen eight 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.800 and she first observed this in the nineteen twenties. UM, 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.439 and it basically boils down to this. It's the it's 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:12.199 the psychological tendency for us to remember incomplete or interrupted 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:17.199 tasks better than complete ones. UM and Tetris. Of course, 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.160 to tie that in is a continuous stream of incomplete task, 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.960 constant sense of achievement, but also a constantly unachieved finish. 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.880 As we mentioned in the previous episode, there's no hey, 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:31.559 you won screen in Tetris. It just keeps getting harder 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.240 and harder and harder until you perish. And of course 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.760 it's made up of lots of little individual incomplete tasks, 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.200 right because every time there's a gap in a row 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.720 in Tetris, that's a little thing that there's a little 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:45.560 flag in your brain that says I need to go 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.760 back and fix that, and I'll get there eventually. So 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:54.480 it's a one huge incomplete task forever being incomplete, made 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:59.120 up of an infinite number of incomplete tasks. UH. It's 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.120 almost as if this was in mind when it was designed. Yeah, 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.640 so there's a Garnic effect, of course, plays into the 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.040 typical human drive to finish what we started, to see 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.320 things through to the finish, and the associative associated negative 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.240 psychological renovocations of doing the opposite. You know, where you're 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.240 you're haunted by that model airplane you never finished, or 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.960 that novel that you have have completed, or you know, 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:24.679 or whatever chores around the house are, and god knows, 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.720 when you have a house, there's always some something that's 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.720 not quite finished about everything. And how those just continue 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:37.040 to stick in your mind? Um. There's a one explanation 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.080 of the Zigaronic effect that I found that I thought 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:43.200 was pretty uh, pretty nice comes from Roy Bambinster and 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.160 Brad Bushman in their two thousand and eight textbooks Social 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.560 Psychology and Human Nature. They said, the Zigarnic effect is 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.480 a tendency to experience automatic, intrusive thoughts about a goal 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.360 that one has pursued, but the pursuit of which has 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.480 been interrupted. That is, if you start working toward a 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.520 goal fail to get their, thoughts about that goal will 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.760 keep popping into your mind while you're doing other things, 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.000 as if to remind you to get back on track 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.200 and finish reaching that goal. So not only is this 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:16.040 something that is related to the motivation we have to 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.600 keep playing Tetris, but it also might sort of explain 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.720 what we talked about in the previous episode because this 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.960 mentions intrusive thoughts about the incomplete task. So in the 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.360 last episode we talked about the Tetris effect where people 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:32.440 experience dreams and hallucinations about Tetris if Tetris is never 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:37.000 finished yet it's always this intrinsically motivating task that remains 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.840 incomplete in the mind. It kind of makes sense through 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:43.600 this method that it would keep jumping up into into 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.680 your thoughts. Yeah, yeah, I think it plays nicely into 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:51.040 into just trying to figure out Tetris syndrome, the Tetris 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.360 effect in general. And then there's a broader lesson here 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.599 though that applies well beyond games, and that is that students, 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:01.319 be it an you be an official student, or just 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.520 somebody studying up on something in your life. Uh, it 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.200 pays to suspend your studies, to take a break, to 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.560 come back to it and not try to wipe it 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:13.480 all out in one massive cramming session. Absolutely, I find 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.320 this to be extremely useful in my own work. So 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:21.240 if I'm trying to uh to think clearly about maybe 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.480 an episode I'm researching or something like that, I find 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:29.120 it's way more useful to uh to start on it 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.560 before I end work for one day. So if it's 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.040 you know, five thirty and I'm trying to quit work 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:39.200 for the day, um, and I'm at the end of 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.200 one task, it's better to do ten percent of the 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.600 next task and then come back to it the next day. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.040 My thoughts about it are gonna be a lot clearer 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:51.280 than to break from work in between when tasks are 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.000 concluded and when the next one starts. Yeah, and generally 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.560 also if you have some sleep in between, then you're 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.720 you're going to to consolidate those memories. All that working 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.000 is working in your favor as well. But also it's 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.000 pointed out a lot that if the if the task 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:09.000 is intimidating, just started, because if you just started, then 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.800 you get to benefit from the Zigarnic effect, because that's 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.360 effect is going to be in play to encourage you 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.320 to come back and work more on it. So beginnings 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.320 are difficult, but begin and then take a break and 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:23.920 then come back. Yeah, This isn't gonna become the self 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.200 help show, but but try that one at least. Yeah, 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:31.720 I I highly advocate that strategy. Get it started, it'll 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:36.880 be easier. Another thing that is UM. I can't remember 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.040 exactly where I came across this, but I feel like 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.440 it was in UH. It was in something that was 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.280 linked to from that Braincraft video. But but anyway, however 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.880 I came across this. Another thing that I saw referenced 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:55.240 UH with regard to Tetris is the idea of epistemic action. 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.480 And I had actually never heard about this phenomena before, 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.040 but I it turned out to be pretty interesting. So 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:06.720 in nine David Kirsch and Paul Maglio published a paper 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:11.760 in Cognitive Science called on Distinguishing Epistemic and Pragmatic Action, 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.120 and Kirsh and Maglio make the distinction between two different 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:19.400 kinds of actions that a person can perform. So you've 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:23.760 got pragmatic action, and this is one. It's an external 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:27.600 action that changes something in the external world in furtherance 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.440 of you achieving a goal. So if you are stranded 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.840 on a tiny island and starving, throwing a rock at 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.360 a seagull would be a pragmatic action. To unlock that 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:42.680 seagull's delicious meat. Or you could make a much smaller action. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.160 You could say, press a button while playing tetris to 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.920 move a Tetris piece with the goal of actually moving 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:50.440 it to the spot where you want to place it. 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.080 You're just doing an action to reach a goal. But 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.760 then they distinguish this from a different kind of action, 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.600 a different kind of external action, which is what they 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:04.560 call astemic action, and this is making a change to 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:08.560 the world in order to simplify a problem solving task. 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:13.200 So imagine you remember those spot the difference puzzles and 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:15.400 children's books, you know what I'm talking about. They'll show 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.520 you two pictures of a scene. One's Mickey Mouse, you know, 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.960 roller skating, and the next one's Mickey Mouse roller skating, 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:24.520 but the clock hands are pointing to a different time 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.639 and something like that. And let's say you've got a 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.760 children's work book with with two of these on different pages. Um, 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:33.840 and what you do is you tear out one of 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.679 the pages and then hold the pictures right next to 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:41.040 each other. That would be an epistemic action, because they're 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:44.440 what you're doing is an action that is really designed 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.720 to change the nature of a problem inside your head 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.400 to simplify the task. So when you see them next 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.000 to each other, or maybe you um lay them on 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:55.520 top of each other and hold it up to a 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.320 light to see what's different. In the two pages, you're 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.480 using external action to reduce the mental complexity of a task. 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:07.159 And they looked at Tetris in this paper actually and 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:14.120 pointed out how experience Tetris players use epistemoic action in Tetris, 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:16.800 and this is the way it works. You've got a 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:18.760 block falling down and you want to fit it in, 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:23.639 and instead of doing all the work of flipping the 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.480 block around in your head to see where it would fit, 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.960 the players flip it. They physically flip it, plus press 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.879 the button to flip it to offload some of the 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.119 cognitive work required to see where it would fit. So 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:41.760 by visually seeing exactly what the block looks like in 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:46.760 all its orientations, you can see, okay, here's exactly where 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:48.840 it would fit without having to flip it in your mind, 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:53.240 thus freeing up some mental resources to look at what's 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.840 the next block in the in the preview bar. So 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.560 so essentially it is using physical action and to make 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.320 mental work easier. They say epistemic action can be used 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:08.280 to reduce the memory involved in a mental computation. UH, 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.560 it can be used to reduce the number of steps 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.280 involved in completing a mental computation, or it can be 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:19.160 used to reduce the probability of error in a mental computation. UM. 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.560 And so if you follow this idea, you can conclude 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.359 that when you play Tetris, it's again kind of a 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.840 perfect back and forth between body and mind. It creates 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:36.280 a constant, flowing, rapid feedback cooperation between mental problem solving 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.240 and then this external epistemic action. You use the body 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.040 to simple simplify a problem. You press the button, flip 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:45.520 the block, see where it would fit. Then you use 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.560 your mind to solve the problem. Then you use the 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.000 body again to execute the solution, and you just keep 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.720 going back and forth on repeat. Alright, so once again 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.560 we see a manner in which Tetris illuminates how our 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:05.040 brain works. And we've discussed they just almost perfect way 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.960 that Tetris captures our mind. So we're gonna take a 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:11.280 quick break and when we come back, we're gonna explore 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:16.119 some some of the applications that that scientists have have 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.760 explored have actually looked into and some some very real 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:24.760 possibilities for tetris as a as a treatment option for 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:37.280 a few different ailments. All right, we're back. Okay, So Robert, 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:41.840 we've talked about the tetris cure. What can you cure 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:46.639 with tetris potentially at least because I was quite surprised 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.840 to see some of this research, but once I read 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:52.600 into it, it started to make a lot of sense 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.800 to me that you could potentially use tetris in maybe 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.879 in place of drugs or other types of therapies and 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.240 lots of scenarios. Yeah, because we've again just think back 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:07.440 to all the ways we've discussed in which tetris captures 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:12.160 your mind, How it plays into two different modes of memory. Um, 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:15.840 how it uh it's got the skeleton key to a 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:18.280 deep part of your brain. Yeah, it's it's involved in 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.959 flow state. It really reminds me of a lot of 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.119 what one is setting to do a set out to 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:25.600 do with meditation and yoga to to a certain extent, 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:29.320 except you kind of have a leg up on it 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.480 by it being this fun, engaging game as opposed to, uh, 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.280 to something that takes a little more deliberate mental or 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:40.040 physical force. Okay, So let's imagine that I am two 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.240 packs a day kind of guy and I'm trying to 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:48.080 quit smoking. Can Tetris help me? Potentially? Yes, And which 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:51.560 sounds crazy, especially anyone who has firsthand experience with just 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:56.600 how how powerful, uh that addiction can be. But we 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.040 do have some evidence to back it up. This is 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:01.520 a new study. This came out August two thousand fifteen, 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.360 and it's from a team of psychologists from from Plymouth 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:09.000 University and Queensland University of Technology in Australia. So this 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:11.760 is how it how it went down. Uh, they got 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:17.320 together thirty one participants ages eighteen through twenty seven, and 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:21.560 they were monitored for levels of craving and also prompted 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:25.600 seven times a day to report their cravings. Fifteen of 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:29.080 these individuals, so roughly half, were required to play three 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:33.320 minutes of Tetris before reporting their craving levels. So it's 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:35.520 kind of like you, you have problems with different cravings 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:38.600 for different things, and somebody's gonna call you and ask 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:40.879 how you're doing with those cravings. But half of the 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.679 group get to play Tetris first before they're quiz done it. 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.399 So cravings were recorded in thirty percent of occasions, most 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.080 commonly for food and non alcoholic drinks, which were reported 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:54.159 on nearly two thirds of those occasions. So of the 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:59.439 cravings were for drug related instances, and these included coffee, 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:03.280 cigarettes when one, and beer and spice. Yeah, and spice 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:08.200 were for miscellaneous activities such as sleeping, playing video games 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:14.200 which I found interesting, socializing with friends, and sexual intercourse. 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:17.359 Food cravings tended to be slightly weaker than those and 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:21.119 other categories. But they claimed this is the first demonstration 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:24.840 that cognitive interference. Again, that's Tetris coming into your life, 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:29.640 captivating your brain, shutting out everything else. Cognitive interference can 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:33.480 be used outside the lab to reduce cravings for substances 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:37.320 and activities other than eating. So in this we could 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:41.359 see how Tetris or some variation of Tetris, some variation 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:45.000 of a you know of a puzzle solving game, could 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:48.120 be used as a support tool for curbing addictions. Not 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:52.200 not again, not the primary tool, but but an additional tool. 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:55.159 So I'm sure that they didn't find that that it 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.560 would completely eliminate cravings. But but did they have an 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:03.480 estimate for by how much the cravings were reduced? Yeah, 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:08.960 by approximately one Okay, So I mean that that's you 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:10.840 could look at that as small, or you could look 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:12.320 at that as big. I mean if if all it 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:15.719 takes is Tetris and you don't have to you know, uh, 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:19.120