The present research investigated whether digital and non-digital platforms activate differing default levels of cognitive construal. Two initial randomized experiments revealed that individuals who completed the same information processing task on a digital mobile device (a tablet or laptop computer) versus a non-digital platform (a physical print-out) exhibited a lower level of construal, one prioritizing immediate, concrete details over abstract, decontextualized interpretations. This pattern emerged both in digital platform participants' greater preference for concrete versus abstract descriptions of behaviors as well as superior performance on detail-focused items (and inferior performance on inference-focused items) on a reading comprehension assessment. A pair of final studies found that the likelihood of correctly solving a problem-solving task requiring higher-level "gist" processing was: (1) higher for participants who processed the information for task on a non-digital versus digital platform and (2) heightened for digital platform participants who had first completed an activity activating an abstract mindset, compared to (equivalent) performance levels exhibited by participants who had either completed no prior activity or completed an activity activating a concrete mindset.

With an increasing reliance on crowdsourcing games as data-gathering tools, it is imperative to understand how to motivate and sustain high levels of voluntary contribution. To this end, the present work directly compared the impact of various "emphasis frames," highlighting distinct intrinsic motivational factors, used to describe an online game in which players provide descriptive metadata "tags" for digitized images. An initial study showed that, compared to frames emphasizing personal enjoyment or altruistic motivations, a frame emphasizing a "growing community of players" solicited significantly fewer contributions. A second study tested the hypothesis that this lower level of contribution resulted from social loafing (the tendency to exert less effort in collective tasks in which contributions are anonymous and pooled). Results revealed that, compared to a no-frame control condition, a frame emphasizing the preponderance of other players reduced contribution levels and game replay likelihood, whereas a frame emphasizing the scarcity of fellow players increased contribution and replay levels. Various strategies for counteracting social loafing in crowdsourcing contexts are discussed.

How can design (broadly thought) and creative thought in technology, 'make a difference' empirically and conceptually from the point of view of design practice? In the world of social impact design, how do designers know if they have the right approach for the best outcomes? In this talk, Tiltfactor laboratory director and Dartmouth professor Mary Flanagan shares strategies for design, focusing on cooperative interactions and the unintended consequences of designers' actions. Urging designers to ask big questions about where our technology is heading and how we might improve it from a social justice perspective, Flanagan offers actionable approaches to these questions through design examples and case studies of specific projects from her innovative game design work at http://www.Tiltfactor.org.

This paper presents insights about design practices that can lead to effective and fun games for learning, gleaned from interviews with experienced game developers. We based our approach on Schon's notion of practitioners evolving shared 'appreciation systems' for discussing and critiquing work, and aimed to gather and share some of game designers' 'appreciation system' for games and learning. The resulting insights provide valuable pointers to other designers in the CHI community crafting game-like experiences.

Can a set of articulated and tested methodologies be created whose endpoint is the reliable capacity for taking activist social themes into account? In this paper we explore a variety of educational and activist game approaches, and look specifically at the themes emerging from recent projects involving game design for young women. We articulate here design practices in a methodology, Values at Play (VAP), that could be used in the creation of games as well as the teaching of game design.

Significant work in the CHI community has focused on designing systems that support human values. Designers and engineers have also become increasingly aware of ways in which the artifacts they create can embody political, social, and ethical values. Despite such an awareness, there has been little work towards producing practical methodologies that systematically incorporate values into the design process. Many designers struggle to find a balance between their own values, those of users and other stakeholders, and those of the surrounding culture. In this paper, we present the RAPUNSEL project as a case study of game design in a values-rich context and describe our efforts toward navigating the complexities this entails. Additionally, we present initial steps toward the development of a systematic methodology for discovery, analysis, and integration of values in technology design in the hope that others may both benefit from and build upon this work.