Learning, memory, and Halo 4
A few weeks ago, I completed a big project in the Memory Lab and found some extra time on my hands. One of the things I found myself getting into Microsoft’s Halo 4 video game. If you’re not familiar with this game (or games of this type), each new release in a series (i.e., the fourth) features similar game mechanics but brand new maps — environments in which the player can explore, engage in combat in, and so forth.
Learning the new maps is one of the most important parts of succeeding in a game like this. As you run around a particular landscape for the first time, nothing makes much sense. It’s impossible to tie one starting location to another. But slowly, after much time — and many, many player deaths — it starts to come together. It’s an intersection of procedural skills with episodic and semantic memory (taking a systems perspective, that is).
I’ve learned many of the maps by now, so I imagine my learning is starting to level off, asymptote. So now it’s time to work on other procedural skills —strategies, maneuvers, and the like — which are much more challenging to master. Many of the experienced players I’ve come up against have at least two full days — 48 hours of playtime —under their belts. Those of us who are more casual players are working toward that goal much more slowly.
These sorts of issues could start all sorts of interesting lines of research. I’m sure that many of them have already been explored.
(A version of this article was originally posted on my personal blog.)
