Card Decks Research Articles

Toolkits, cards and games – a review of analogue tools for collaborative ideation

ABSTRACT Analogue tools offer distinct benefits for collaborative design ideation and can take a variety of tailored forms including card decks, templates, toys and board games. However, owing to the disparate and multidisciplinary sources of these tools, there is currently no easy way to gain a coherent view of the tool landscape. To resolve this, we conducted a survey of analogue ideation tools within the design and HCI literatures, and within commercial practice. Of 3,395 results, 76 met the inclusion criteria. The resulting collection is presented and classified according to 10 descriptors including a novel taxonomy for distinguishing 7 tool types (methods, prompts, components, concepts, stories, embodiment, and construction). We also discuss gaps and opportunities for future tool development in inclusivity, cultural-tailoring and embodiment. Our aim is to help designers and design teams more fluently select, customise, critique, analyse and/or build tools to support collaborative designerly inquiry.

Modelling decision-making under uncertainty: A direct comparison study between human and mouse gambling data

Decision-making is a conserved evolutionary process enabling us to choose one option among several alternatives, and relies on reward and cognitive control systems. The Iowa Gambling Task allows the assessment of human decision-making under uncertainty by presenting four card decks with various cost-benefit probabilities. Participants seek to maximise their monetary gain by developing long-term optimal-choice strategies. Animal versions have been adapted with nutritional rewards, but interspecies data comparisons are scarce. Our study directly compares the non-pathological decision-making performance between humans and wild-type C57BL/6 mice. Human participants completed an electronic Iowa Gambling Task version, while mice a maze-based adaptation with four arms baited in a probabilistic way. Our data shows closely matching performance between both species with similar patterns of choice behaviours. However, mice showed a faster learning rate than humans. Moreover, both populations were clustered into good, intermediate and poor decision-making categories with similar proportions. Remarkably, mice characterised as good decision-makers behaved the same as humans of the same category, but slight differences among species are evident for the other two subpopulations. Overall, our direct comparative study confirms the good face validity of the rodent gambling task. Extended behavioural characterisation and pathological animal models should help strengthen its construct validity and disentangle the determinants in animals and humans decision-making.

Pre-specified Anxiety Predicts Future Decision-Making Performances Under Different Temporally Constrained Conditions.

In real-life circumstances, people occasionally require making forced decisions when encountering unpredictable events and situations that yield socially and privately unfavorable consequences. In order to prevent future negative consequences, it is beneficial to successfully predict future decision-making behaviors based on various types of information, including behavioral traits and/or psychological states. For this prospective purpose, the present study used the Iowa Gambling Task, which simulates multiple aspects of real-life decision-making processes, such as choice preference, selection and evaluation of output feedback, and investigated how anxiety profiles predict decision-making performances under conditions with different temporal pressures on task execution. To conduct a temporally causal analysis, we assessed the trait and state anxiety profiles of 33 young participants prior to the task and analyzed their subsequent decision-making performances. We separated two disadvantageous card decks with high rewards and losses into high- and middle-risk decks, and calculated local performance indexes for decision-making immediately after salient penalty events for the high-risk deck in addition to traditional global performance indexes concerning overall trial outcomes such as final winnings and net scores. For global decision-making, higher trait anxiety predicted more risky choices solely in the self-paced condition without temporal pressure. For local decision-making, state anxiety predicted risk-taking performances differently in the self- and forced-paced conditions. In the self-paced condition, higher state anxiety predicted higher risk-avoidance. In the forced-paced condition, higher state anxiety predicted more frequent choices of the middle-risk deck. These findings suggest not only that pre-specified anxiety profiles can effectively predict future decision-making behaviors under different temporal pressures, but also newly indicate that behavioral mechanisms for moderate risk-taking under an emergent condition should be focused on to effectively prevent future unfavorable consequences when actually encountering negative events.

Card-based design tools: a review and analysis of 155 card decks for designers and designing

Many card-based design tools have been produced, initially to aid creativity and user participation in design, with an upsurge post-2000 when numerous card decks were developed. Reviewers have classified the tools using samples ranging from five to thirty-eight. Our comprehensive inventory and analysis of 155 card-based tools offers a more robust classification, with three-quarters aiming to facilitate creative thinking, human-centred design, or domain-specific methods. The few scientific trials of these tools indicate they enable designers to generate more innovative concepts, and feedback indicates that cards can aid the design process and provide information, methods, or good practice in handy form. However, cards are usually tested and applied by their developers, so more independent trials are needed to establish their effectiveness.

Emotion and decision-making: Induced mood influences IGT scores and deck selection strategies

ABSTRACTThe somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) represents a rich neuropsychological framework to study emotion-based decision-making. It originates from early brain lesion studies using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which showed that adaptive decision-making relies on intact ventromedial prefrontal cortex for the integration of so-called “hot” affective signals and rational “cold” perceptual cognitive computations. Subsequent studies over the past 20 years have provided converging evidence for the reliability and validity of the IGT in assessing decision-making in both healthy and clinical samples, although some discrepancies remain. In healthy individuals, it has been shown that differences in emotional states prior to taking the IGT result in different outcomes, thus potentially accounting for some of the variation within this group. However, the precise role of such transient modulations of emotional states remains unclear. In this study we sought to examine the role of specific induced moods under carefully controlled conditions. Accordingly, we randomly assigned 44 healthy college undergraduates to a positive, negative, or neutral affect condition in which they simultaneously viewed images and listened to music that previous studies had shown to induce specific moods. Results indicated that mood induction was successful, and the positive affect group showed a clearly different pattern of IGT performance compared to the other two groups, in that they showed a rapidly established and stable bias favoring the positive expected value (EV) card decks. The negative affect group showed significantly lower bias towards the positive EV decks, although this group was not different from the neutral affect group. Bayesian analyses confirmed these findings. While consistent with SMH, these current findings may be best understood in support of a more general effect of normal mood on cognition as outlined in the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.

Proposed Balance Model for Card Deck Measurement in Hearthstone

Hearthstone is a popular trading card game (TCG) that was released in 2014. Players can build numerous decks in the game, one that offers variety and sophistication to over thirty million players worldwide. The TCG requires players to use their card decks to compete with one other. In this paper, a series of functions that describe the strength of a TCG card is described; and a balance model for Hearthstone, which could serve as a basis for many other TCGs, is proposed. The balance model could become a fundamental element for TCG design, one that might enable TCG developers to design cards without making them too powerful. The balance model could also be used in other TCGs including Shadowverse, Magical Card and The Elder Scrolls: Legend.

Shuffling the Collection: Card Decks as Museum Interventions

Shuffling the Collection: Card Decks as Museum Interventions

Money for us versus money for them: cross-cultural differences in sensitivity to rewards for ingroup and outgroup

Economic decisions often involve consideration of social groups, as when a decision has consequences not just for oneself but also for an in-group or out-group member. Culture—specifically, differences between Western individualistic and Eastern collectivist cultures—has direct influence on perception of social group identity. Yet, not many studies have investigated how culture might influence economic decision making involving social groups. The current study determined cultural influences on sensitivity to rewards directed towards their ingroup and outgroup. American and Korean students performed a simple card game, in which they earned money for ingroup and outgroup members by choosing from amongst four card decks each associated with different reward outcomes for the two groups. Performance on the card game showed a culture-by-reward-group interaction such that Koreans showed greater reward sensitivity for the ingroup than did Americans. These results demonstrate significant cross-cultural differences in the processing of rewards towards different social groups.

Prosocial Reward Learning in Children and Adolescents.

Adolescence is a period of increased sensitivity to social contexts. To evaluate how social context sensitivity changes over development—and influences reward learning—we investigated how children and adolescents perceive and integrate rewards for oneself and others during a dynamic risky decision-making task. Children and adolescents (N = 75, 8–16 years) performed the Social Gambling Task (SGT, Kwak et al., 2014) and completed a set of questionnaires measuring other-regarding behavior. In the SGT, participants choose amongst four card decks that have different payout structures for oneself and for a charity. We examined patterns of choices, overall decision strategies, and how reward outcomes led to trial-by-trial adjustments in behavior, as estimated using a reinforcement-learning model. Performance of children and adolescents was compared to data from a previously collected sample of adults (N = 102) performing the identical task. We found that that children/adolescents were not only more sensitive to rewards directed to the charity than self but also showed greater prosocial tendencies on independent measures of other-regarding behavior. Children and adolescents also showed less use of a strategy that prioritizes rewards for self at the expense of rewards for others. These results support the conclusion that, compared to adults, children and adolescents show greater sensitivity to outcomes for others when making decisions and learning about potential rewards.

Poker-DVS and MNIST-DVS. Their History, How They Were Made, and Other Details.

This article reports on two databases for event-driven object recognition using a Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS). The first, which we call Poker-DVS and is being released together with this article, was obtained by browsing specially made poker card decks in front of a DVS camera for 2–4 s. Each card appeared on the screen for about 20–30 ms. The poker pips were tracked and isolated off-line to constitute the 131-recording Poker-DVS database. The second database, which we call MNIST-DVS and which was released in December 2013, consists of a set of 30,000 DVS camera recordings obtained by displaying 10,000 moving symbols from the standard MNIST 70,000-picture database on an LCD monitor for about 2–3 s each. Each of the 10,000 symbols was displayed at three different scales, so that event-driven object recognition algorithms could easily be tested for different object sizes. This article tells the story behind both databases, covering, among other aspects, details of how they work and the reasons for their creation. We provide not only the databases with corresponding scripts, but also the scripts and data used to generate the figures shown in this article (as Supplementary Material).

Differential reward learning for self and others predicts self-reported altruism.

In social environments, decisions not only determine rewards for oneself but also for others. However, individual differences in pro-social behaviors have been typically studied through self-report. We developed a decision-making paradigm in which participants chose from card decks with differing rewards for themselves and charity; some decks gave similar rewards to both, while others gave higher rewards for one or the other. We used a reinforcement-learning model that estimated each participant's relative weighting of self versus charity reward. As shown both in choices and model parameters, individuals who showed relatively better learning of rewards for charity – compared to themselves – were more likely to engage in pro-social behavior outside of a laboratory setting indicated by self-report. Overall rates of reward learning, however, did not predict individual differences in pro-social tendencies. These results support the idea that biases toward learning about social rewards are associated with one's altruistic tendencies.

More than the Fonts have Changed

BioTechniquesVol. 55, No. 5 From the EditorOpen AccessMore than the fonts have changedNathan S. BlowNathan S. BlowBioTechniquesSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:3 Apr 2018https://doi.org/10.2144/000114095AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail Leafing through this issue of BioTechniques, some of you might feel a ting of nostalgia, while others might just wonder what the heck is going on. Ahh, the different perspectives of age. Our younger readers will likely be the ones wondering about the “old” look this month, since they will not have been in the lab in the early 1990s, when BioTechniques articles appeared in this style and format. But for those of us who can recall those days, this special issue of BioTechniques should be a throwback to a bygone era, in more ways than one.Back in the early 1990s, I was finishing my undergraduate education and BioTechniques was the first journal to which I subscribed. Being free (and remaining free to this day), it presented me the opportunity to have my very own copy of a scientific journal. As corny as this might sound, I was proud each time an issue arrived in the lab, because I was part of a much larger group of scientists and researchers reading this journal every month. In those days, articles were not published as quickly as today, but I think there was a stronger sense of journal identity that is missing now. I was able to start my own scientific mini-library, keeping those issues that would help me as my career progressed. It was solid, tangible, physical proof that I was a part of something. Today, I can get any article I need in an instant, but I receive very few journals in print. My job is to keep up with new methods and techniques, but that is increasingly difficult with more journals coming online each day. I tend not to read journals cover to cover anymore. Instead I skim tables of contents and abstracts, usually online, to find relevant information.Back then, each month BioTechniques would come with a number of PCR, sequencing, cloning, or microscopy techniques/methods articles. There would also be “card decks”, index-sized cards that featured new products or technologies and often contained offers for free samples or other items. I cannot tell you how many times I sent for a free spin column, extraction buffer, or enzyme to trial. As for the cards I did not send in—someone else in the lab would take a couple and use them. My copy of BioTechniques always saw more than one pair of hands.The journal content was different too. There were not that many news features; instead, the journal focused on publishing a larger number of peer-reviewed methods and technique articles than today. I'm not saying there isn't a place for news—in fact we know many readers enjoy our monthly columns. But at that time, with fewer publishing outlets, the focus was on distributing research to a large community of scientists. There were no flashy fonts or styles, simply clean and direct articles.While I might be sounding old (which I guess I am now), this editorial is not about yearning for the past. Being able to publish articles quickly and in new formats is a very good thing. Rather, my nostalgia is about how journals promote science by giving authors a voice and a forum to present their research, building a community of readers who actively engage and communicate discoveries beyond the confines of their labs. For me, this is a time to reflect on what we can do in the future to preserve these traditions in an era of fast publishing and decreased oversight, often led by publishers focused on nothing more than the bottom line. Many of today's newer journals exist merely as collections of articles on a website—they lack identity and have simply been put in place to collect author or subscriber fees, which is a sad reflection on the state of scientific publishing.So, take a look at this special “retro” issue of BioTechniques, and while reflecting on the “old school” look, think about that bygone era where journals existed only in print, submissions were sent by post, and editors called authors with questions. A time where predatory journals did not exist for the most part and publishing was less business and more science. And then ask yourself if speed and convenience are worth losing the feeling of being a part of a community or of creating your own mini-library. Being more connected to information without much context ultimately could make us less connected as scientists.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 55, No. 5 Follow us on social media for the latest updates Metrics History Published online 3 April 2018 Published in print November 2013 Information© 2013 Author(s)PDF download

Dopaminergic Influences on Emotional Decision Making in Euthymic Bipolar Patients

We recently reported that the D2/D3 agonist pramipexole may have pro-cognitive effects in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (BPD); however, the emergence of impulse-control disorders has been documented in Parkinson's disease (PD) after pramipexole treatment. Performance on reward-based tasks is altered in healthy subjects after a single dose of pramipexole, but its potential to induce abnormalities in BPD patients is unknown. We assessed reward-dependent decision making in euthymic BPD patients pre- and post 8 weeks of treatment with pramipexole or placebo by using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The IGT requires subjects to choose among four card decks (two risky and two conservative) and is designed to promote learning to make advantageous (conservative) choices over time. Thirty-four BPD patients completed both assessments (18 placebo and 16 pramipexole). Baseline performance did not differ by treatment group (F=0.63; p=0.64); however, at week 8, BPD patients on pramipexole demonstrated a significantly greater tendency to make increasingly high-risk, high-reward choices across the five blocks, whereas the placebo group's pattern was similar to that reported in healthy individuals (treatment × time × block interaction, p<0.05). Analyses of choice strategy using the expectancy valence model revealed that after 8 weeks on pramipexole, BPD patients attended more readily to feedback related to gains than to losses, which could explain the impaired learning. There were no significant changes in mood symptoms over the 8 weeks, and no increased propensity toward manic-like behaviors were reported. Our results suggest that the enhancement of dopaminergic activity influences risk-associated decision-making performance in euthymic BPD. The clinical implications remain unknown.

Altered social and non-social decision-making in recreational and dependent cocaine users

Maladaptive decision-making is assumed to be a core feature of cocaine addiction. Indeed, numerous studies have reported deficits in non-social decision-making tasks and reward-related impulsivity in dependent cocaine users. However, social decision-making has not been examined in cocaine users yet. Moreover, it is unknown if even recreational and non-dependent cocaine use is linked to decision-making deficits. Therefore, we investigated whether recreational and dependent cocaine users exhibit alterations in social and non-social decision-making. The performance of healthy controls (n = 68), recreational cocaine users (n = 68) and dependent cocaine users (n = 30) in classical decision-making paradigms (Iowa Gambling Task, Delay Discounting) and in social interaction paradigms (Distribution Game, Dictator Game) was assessed. Decisions in the social interaction tasks of both cocaine user groups were more self-serving compared with controls as cocaine users preferred higher monetary payoffs for themselves. In the Iowa Gambling Task, only dependent cocaine users were more likely to choose disadvantageous card decks, reflecting worse decision-making. They were also more likely to choose immediate smaller rewards over larger delayed rewards in the Delay Discounting task. Our results imply that both recreational and dependent cocaine users are more concerned with their own monetary gain when interacting with another person. Furthermore, primarily dependent cocaine users are less foresighted and more impulsive regarding immediate reward. Overall, social interaction deficits are already present in recreational users, while non-social decision-making deficits occur predominantly in dependent cocaine users. Thus, social interaction training and cognitive remediation strategies may improve treatment success and quality of life in cocaine dependence.

Sexual Picture Processing Interferes with Decision-Making Under Ambiguity

Many people watch sexually arousing material on the Internet in order to receive sexual arousal and gratification. When browsing for sexual stimuli, individuals have to make several decisions, all possibly leading to positive or negative consequences. Decision-making research has shown that decisions under ambiguity are influenced by consequences received following earlier decisions. Sexual arousal might interfere with the decision-making process and should therefore lead to disadvantageous decision-making in the long run. In the current study, 82 heterosexual, male participants watched sexual pictures, rated them with respect to sexual arousal, and were asked to indicate their current level of sexual arousal before and following the sexual picture presentation. Afterwards, subjects performed one of two modified versions of the Iowa Gambling Task in which sexual pictures were displayed on the advantageous and neutral pictures on the disadvantageous card decks or vice versa (n = 41/n = 41). Results demonstrated an increase of sexual arousal following the sexual picture presentation. Decision-making performance was worse when sexual pictures were associated with disadvantageous card decks compared to performance when the sexual pictures were linked to the advantageous decks. Subjective sexual arousal moderated the relationship between task condition and decision-making performance. This study emphasized that sexual arousal interfered with decision-making, which may explain why some individuals experience negative consequences in the context of cybersex use.

Arbitrarily Unfair Card Decks and a Conjecture of Artin

Arbitrarily Unfair Card Decks and a Conjecture of Artin

Emotion‐Based Learning is Biased by Brand Logos

SummaryAlthough decision making has historically been regarded as a cold and rational process, recent research has suggested that emotional factors are actually quite central to this fundamental process. By using a modified version of the Iowa gambling task, we measured how such brands impact decision making. Participants were asked firstly to rate their liking/loyalty towards numerous brands. Some of these rated brands were later superimposed onto the card decks in a subsequent Iowa gambling task. Results demonstrate that an individual's decision making is altered depending on the congruency between brand valence (liked/not) and the deck reward structure. This bias was sometimes advantageous and led to faster and more accurate decisions. From an applied perspective, the study suggests several ways in which brands can either enhance or inhibit new product success. More broadly, the research demonstrates a seemingly irrational effect of brands on behaviour. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Prise de décision et schizophrénie

Abnormalities involving the prefrontal cortex (PFC) have long been postulated to underpin the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Investigations of PFC integrity have focused mainly on the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) and abnormalities in this region have been extensively documented. However, defects in schizophrenia may extend to other prefrontal regions, including the ventromedial PFC (VMPFC), and evidence of VMPFC abnormalities comes from neuropathological, structural and functional studies. Patients with acquired brain injury to the VMPFC display profound disruption of social behaviour and poor judgment in their personal lives. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was developed to assess decision-making in these neurological cases : it presents a series of 100 choices from four card decks that differ in the distribution of rewarding and punishing outcomes. Whilst healthy volunteers gradually develop a preference for the two "safe" decks over the course of the task, patients with VMPFC lesions maintain a preference for the two "risky" decks which are associated with high reinforcement in the short term, but significant long-term debt. Interestingly, damage to VMPFC may cause both poor performance on the IGT and lack of insight concerning the acquired personality modification. Recently, our group reported a trait-related decisionmaking impairment in the three phases of bipolar disorder. In a PET study, VMPFC dysfunction was shown in bipolar manic patients impaired on a decision-making task and an association between decision-making cognition and lack of insight was described in mania. A quantitative association between grey matter volume of VMPFC and memory impairment was previously reported in schizophrenia. Research suggests that lack of insight is a prevalent feature in schizophrenia patients, like auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, and disorganized speech and thinking. Because schizophrenia is associated with significant social or occupational dysfunction, previous research assessed decision-making function but indicates conflicting results. Thirteen studies have reported impaired IGT performance in patients with schizophrenia and, in seven reports, no significant differences in IGT performance between patient and healthy control groups were found. Those discrepancies may relate to multiple factors. First, most of the studies included small sample size and negative findings may be due to the large variance of net scores. Second, as suggested by Rodríguez-Sánchez et al., there is a wide disparity in performance by control subjects across studies. Third, intelligence quotient (IQ) score and level of education may be correlated with IGT performance, which may explain IGT performance differences in studies that did not control for educational or IQ score. Fourth, only two studies have systematically controlled for substance use disorder, a potential confounder. Fifth, only two studies assessed the impact of antipsychotic (AP) class on performance. Sixth, to our knowledge, no study assessed the impact of AP dosage on decision-making ability, while AP dose-reduction and dopamine increase, might lead to improvements, in cognitive functions in schizophrenia and in IGT performance in bipolar disorder, respectively. Finally, discrepancies between studies may be related to the heterogeneity of diagnostic groups. Two of the negative studies included schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder while positive studies have generally included only patients with schizophrenia. Nevertheless, some studies that included only patients with schizophrenia failed to find differences between groups. Thus, further research should assess decision-making in schizophrenia by testing a large group of patients with homogeneity of diagnostic, in comparison with a large group of control subjects. Authors should control for IQ or level of education, substance use disorder and smoking status. While it is now accepted that DLPFC defects in schizophrenia may extend to VMPFC, future investigations should test for an association between memory, insight ability and IGT performance and assess the impact of antipsychotic dosage upon performance.

Tantalizing Tarot and Cute Cartomancy in Japan

A notable and markedly gendered development among Japanese fans of divination (uranai) and the occult is the increased desire for exotic tarot cards and other types of oracle card decks. This interest promotes new opportunities for the consumption of divination services, and fortune-telling experts offer extensive menus of card reading services in a wide range of settings. Consumers may buy beautiful, cute and novelty decks that cater to devotees of specific themes, manga, or anime, such as Hello Kitty, Evangelion, Little Twin Stars, and other adored characters. This essay understands divination cards anthropologically as a form of sensory contact between social actors that allows them to link the material world of objects with the abstract world of ideas, creating a shared universe of meaning. It looks at some of the newer forms of card divination, particularly borrowed, hybrid and reinvented practices that have emerged in recent years. I focus attention on an under-analysed girls' culture pastime that highlights the moments of physical and mental touching that transpires between tarot readers, clients and the cards themselves.

Enhanced cardiac perception is associated with benefits in decision‐making

In the present study we provide the first empirical evidence that viscero-sensory feedback from an internal organ is associated with decision-making processes. Participants with accurate vs. poor perception of their heart activity were compared with regard to their performance in the Iowa Gambling Task. During this task, participants have to choose between four card decks. Decks A and B yield high gains and high losses, and if played continuously, result in net loss. In contrast, decks C and D yield small gains and also small losses, but result in net profit if they are selected continuously. Accordingly, participants have to learn to avoid the net loss options in favor of the net gain options. In our study, participants with good cardiac perception chose significantly more of the net gain and fewer of the net loss options. Our findings document the substantial role of visceral feedback in decision-making processes in complex situations.