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The Super Mario Effect – Tricking Your Brain into Learning More | Mark Rober | TEDxPenn



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When 50,000 of Mark Rober’s 3 million YouTube subscribers participated in a basic coding challenge, the data all pointed to what Rober has dubbed the Super Mario Effect. The YouTube star and former NASA engineer describes how this data-backed mindset for life gamification has stuck with him along his journey, and how it impacts the ways he helps (or tricks) his viewers into learning science, engineering, and design. Mark Rober has made a career out of engineering, entertainment, and education. After completing degrees in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University and the University of Southern California, Rober joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2004. In his nine years as a NASA engineer, seven of which were on the Mars rover Curiosity team, Rober worked on both the Descent Stage (the jet pack that lowered the Rover to the surface) and some hardware on the Rover top deck for collecting samples. In 2011, Rober’s iPad-based Halloween costume helped launch both his creative costume company, Digital Dudz, and his YouTube channel, which now boasts 3 million subscribers and 400 million views. His videos focus on creative ideas and science- and engineering-based pranks and activities. Rober is a regular guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”. Today, he does research and development work for a large technology company in Northern California, where he lives with his wife and son. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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45 thoughts on “The Super Mario Effect – Tricking Your Brain into Learning More | Mark Rober | TEDxPenn
  1. I remember watching a documentary about video games. Video game designers mentioned that in later Mario titles they replaced the "Game Over" screen with a "Continue" screen. This was to encourage players to keep playing. Novice video game players would take "Game Over" too literally and stop playing all together. Video game psychology should be implemented more in education.

  2. The reason toddlers can learn so well is because their parents WANT them to. Change is encouraged by the parents. They are encouraged to walk, talk, eat, use the toilet etc. As children grow up, change is encouraged less and less. Our parents don't mind us changing as long as it's within the realm of the family norm. For example, take a Christian family. The child is encouraged to change and grow within the family norm. They would be encouraged to read scripture, attend Bible studies, become confirmed into the church etc. But what if that child wanted to explore another religion? That would not be encouraged in most families. This applies to everything. The parents basically say to the child, usually without words, you can be and do anything as long as we approve of it. Most adults are still trying to please their parents and be what the parents want them to be.

  3. In the game I found a hack where you can get over 100 free lives I think it was stage 2.3 just before going to the next stage of you jumped on the turtle on the 3rd step you would get those free lives and with those lives I managed to play boldly and finish the game
    Same like life get as many lives and finish the game

  4. While I understand his argument and love the analogy, I think there is something to add to the discussion (I don't think it goes directly against it).

    But first let me say, that I have absolutely no knowledge of the science of psychology or anything like that, this is just anecdotal experience and a bit of personal philosophy.

    I think, that the dissapointment of failure is an important natural mechanism. There is more than one goal in life. Actually there is an infinite number of possible goals in life. And the gratification from beating a challenge is also not the only positive about reaching your goals. So there is nothing wrong about giving up. You just need to find something else you want to do and go in that direction.
    And sure, it's not beneficial to do that forever, because you'll not learn much. But similarly it's not beneficial to do something you'll never succeed in or that will bring you less that you've given into it. Because truthfully, we are allways punished for failure. Because we have allways paid for the attempt – with our time. And we have limited time and there is so many things today that we can use our time for.

    Take the dartboard as an example. He said he worked 3 years on that thing. If he gave up after the first 6 months, he might have used the time from the next 2,5 months to do according to his own estimations (about 3 months/project) 10 other projects! /this is a bit of a cheat, he probably worked on some things in paralel/
    And yes, he would not get the same gratification for beating a challenge with those 10 other projects. But maybe one of them would help someone (like a particular kid with some issues – just to give a really emotional example), or maybe he would be able to make more money of it and turn it into bigger studio or something that helps him with next projects and therefore create a spiral of improvements.
    I am not saying that his decision to stick to it was wrong, absolutely not. In this case it seems like a good decision. But we have to realize that there are reasons to sometimes let go of our goals and find new goals.

  5. Wow apply this to daily life and have fun.This is great my kids are gonna have major trust issues with me now cause im gonna use them for test dummies..Wish me luck..

  6. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

  7. I am just a 11 year old, watching Mark Rober from 2 years, or 1, this will help me in gaming and studies, and learn English [i am Indian so it is very difficult to achieve something]

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