Learning loops: can technology help us build healthy habits?
Ding Dong! My friend rang the bell. Today, we had planned to turn a rainy, frosty lockdown Saturday into a teenage afternoon of playing video games on an old PlayStation 3 I had just inherited. We spent the day playing Crash Team Racing and ended with a delicious Roti eaten on the couch. I have never been a video gamer, my brother was the big gamer of the family, but I have always been fascinated and enchanted by that inaccessible world to the annoying little sister. Teleported back in time, I did my best on the console trying to never let go of that turbo R1 button. I happily ended up one step away from the podium as my friend kicked me and other NPCs.
“EH! Muscle memory!” he told me.
Building muscle memory builds digital memory
The Human Memory guide describes 3 types of memories in human brains:
- Episodic memory registers the events of our lives, linked to specific dates and places.
- Semantic memory collects knowledge. It is the memory of words, numbers, and general information.
- Procedural memory is used for practical things such as walking, cycling, driving and of course, playing video games which includes building up muscle memory.
This last example is considered as a part of implicit memory, which is distinguished from other types of memory because it is automatic and it works at an unconscious level. It is also interestingly called “Digital Memory.” Digital memory corresponds to our capacity to identically replicate physical actions or movements, by repeating these actions several times, in this way muscle memory and habit are built up forming our know-how. For competitive games that are difficult and challenging, players must play more slowly and carefully (to avoid being killed for example). While repeating the same actions each round, speed and reaction time improves. As in competitive gaming, as in sports, this kind of memory is key.
Our brief
Can we shape our daily use of technology into something that brings well-being to our life?
I’m currently part of a program at the Digital Society School of Amsterdam and within the Digital Twin team, we are exploring how data and XR technology can empower Paralympian, student-athletes to find and maintain balance in their lives. In the past months, we have conducted in-depth research and ideation. We have been interviewing student-athletes from the Elite Sports Academy to understand their struggles and needs to reach balance. Their schedule is tight between sports career and studies and respects the daily activities can have an important impact on the long term plan.
Forming healthy habits
Now, we are investigating the idea of how new habits are created. With the team, we are trying to propose new habits to collect data in an effortless and privacy-friendly way, that impacts the long term view of athletes. And here is where we encountered James Clear’s, Atomic habits. Through examples from sports, business and education, with evidence from psychology and neuroscience, the book explains the science and practical implications of how tiny, “atomic” habits and minuscule changes can grow into life-altering outcomes. His explanation of daily small and repetitive commitments reminded me of the buttons repetitions in gaming and the build-up of digital memory.
“We are so attuned in modern society to try and seek instant gratification that it’s actually really hard to focus on things that have long term benefits.” — Ali Abdaal
In James Clear’s guide, he explains five simple steps to build a strategy creating sustainable habits. Here are two especially relevant for our project:
Start with an incredibly small habit
Willpower is like a muscle. It gets fatigued through usage throughout the day. Stanford professor, BJ Fogg, calls this the “motivation wave.” Motivation rises and falls in ebbs and flows.
“Make it easy enough that you can get it done without motivation.” — James Clear
When you slip, get back on track quickly
Top performers make mistakes, commit errors, and get off track just like everyone else. The difference is that they get back on track as quickly as possible. Research has shown that missing a habit once, no matter when it occurs has no measurable impact on long-term progress. Rather than trying to be perfect, it is important to abandon an all-or-nothing mentality.
“Rather than trying to be perfect, abandon your all-or-nothing mentality.” — James Clear
With this information and much more in our research, we are facing a big contrast, on one side, the need for consistency and long-term planning on the opposite side, the daily use of technology constantly seeking our attention for instant reward and short-term, easy results.
Using technology to improve our cognition
Another pillar of our research is Neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley’s work on Closed-loop system experiences. His book, “The Distracted Mind,” has shown why our brains aren’t built for media multitasking, and how we can learn to live with technology in a more balanced way.
Videogames are a powerful form of interactive media that has the ability to change behaviour. — Adam Gazzaley
In 2017, Gazzaley ran a series of studies on the experience of gaming. The research led to the development of Project Evo, a closed-loop video game that improves real-time cognitive skills. The project consists of a simple car game that records performance in real-time and then updates the environment according to the level of preparation. The game scales the challenge based on the player’s skill and challenges him to just that level that isn’t frustrating because it’s too difficult, and not easy because it’s too simple and it gets boring. Apply, recording, and refining, repeatedly with each pass the game becomes more targeting and more personalised.
The big takeaways of the research are that Gazzaley sees technology as a therapeutic treatment, “Digital medicine can work parallel with molecular medicine.” Gazzaley looks at the potentiality of video games as “powerful experiences [that] are the gateway to our Brain plasticity”.
Building habits is similar to learning through closed-loop systems
The main outcome of this research is that building habits are similar to learning through closed-loop systems; repeating the same action over and over through daily routines can empower building skills and abilities in the long term. Reaching long term goals is not easy, as it requires perseverance, patience and motivation. All of this costs time and energy. What if the use of technologies might facilitate us in doing so? Can the use of technology help make it easier and more time-efficient? Can technology reveal to us the bigger picture to see the long term impact of out today activity? Can the use of technology allows us to have a better overview of our long term goal?
I believe technology can help us down this road, to provide us with an overview, but it’s up to us to enjoy the ride through the ebbs and flows.
We will continue exploring these questions in our next Sprints. For the time being, I will dedicate time to improve my video game skills training to be ready for the final boss from 1999.
Read more about our project here Data-driven athletes and in these previous Medium posts: Asking More and Talking Less by Alexander Bernevega and Narratives of Balance by Valentina Marino A.
❤ Thank you very much for your time ❤
This is my first article and all comments, critique and suggestions are more than welcome.
