Sex, Brains, and Video Games
Sex, Brains, and Video Games

Author: Jennifer Burek Pierce

Publisher: American Library Association

Published: 2017-03-09

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0838915493

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How do we break through and truly reach our young adult patrons? It begins with understanding them. Librarians who work with teens need information and a big-picture perspective on adolescence that reflects the latest knowledge of cognate fields and the contemporary realities of young people's lives. In this greatly revised and updated edition of her popular guide Burek Pierce provides exactly that, selecting and synthesizing emerging information from multiple fields of research to effectively support librarians' work with teens. Far-reaching but pragmatic, this book discusses such important topics as identity and community, sex and sexualities, what experts can tell us about the adolescent brain, and how teens use technology to mediate the world; replaces outdated developmental theories that have been discarded in their home fields but are still sometimes used in the LIS world; looks at how to blend what research tells us about teens with day-to-day work in libraries; reflects new norms of professional practice, such as the increased importance of community engagement and partnerships, offering librarians a path towards cooperation and collaboration with peers outside the library world; and includes a bibliography of essential reading for YA librarians. Educators and practitioners, as well as students preparing to enter the field, will all benefit from this compact overview of contemporary research on adolescence.

Sex, Brains, and Video Games
Sex, Brains, and Video Games

Author: Jennifer Burek Pierce

Publisher: American Library Association

Published: 2017-03-09

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0838915507

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How do we break through and truly reach our young adult patrons? It begins with understanding them. Librarians who work with teens need information and a big-picture perspective on adolescence that reflects the latest knowledge of cognate fields and the contemporary realities of young people's lives. In this greatly revised and updated edition of her popular guide Burek Pierce provides exactly that, selecting and synthesizing emerging information from multiple fields of research to effectively support librarians' work with teens. Far-reaching but pragmatic, this book discusses such important topics as identity and community, sex and sexualities, what experts can tell us about the adolescent brain, and how teens use technology to mediate the world; replaces outdated developmental theories that have been discarded in their home fields but are still sometimes used in the LIS world; looks at how to blend what research tells us about teens with day-to-day work in libraries; reflects new norms of professional practice, such as the increased importance of community engagement and partnerships, offering librarians a path towards cooperation and collaboration with peers outside the library world; and includes a bibliography of essential reading for YA librarians. Educators and practitioners, as well as students preparing to enter the field, will all benefit from this compact overview of contemporary research on adolescence.

The Gamer's Brain
The Gamer's Brain

Author: Celia Hodent

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2017-08-10

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1351650769

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Making a successful video game is hard. Even games that are successful at launch may fail to engage and retain players in the long term due to issues with the user experience (UX) that they are delivering. The game user experience accounts for the whole experience players have with a video game, from first hearing about it to navigating menus and progressing in the game. UX as a discipline offers guidelines to assist developers in creating the experience they want to deliver, shipping higher quality games (whether it is an indie game, AAA game, or "serious game"), and meeting their business goals while staying true to their design and artistic intent. In a nutshell, UX is about understanding the gamer’s brain: understanding human capabilities and limitations to anticipate how a game will be perceived, the emotions it will elicit, how players will interact with it, and how engaging the experience will be. This book is designed to equip readers of all levels, from student to professional, with neuroscience knowledge and user experience guidelines and methodologies. These insights will help readers identify the ingredients for successful and engaging video games, empowering them to develop their own unique game recipe more efficiently, while providing a better experience for their audience. Key Features Provides an overview of how the brain learns and processes information by distilling research findings from cognitive science and psychology research in a very accessible way. Topics covered include: "neuromyths", perception, memory, attention, motivation, emotion, and learning. Includes numerous examples from released games of how scientific knowledge translates into game design, and how to use a UX framework in game development. Describes how UX can guide developers to improve the usability and the level of engagement a game provides to its target audience by using cognitive psychology knowledge, implementing human-computer interaction principles, and applying the scientific method (user research). Provides a practical definition of UX specifically applied to games, with a unique framework. Defines the most relevant pillars for good usability (ease of use) and good "engage-ability" (the ability of the game to be fun and engaging), translated into a practical checklist. Covers design thinking, game user research, game analytics, and UX strategy at both a project and studio level. Offers unique insights from a UX expert and PhD in psychology who has been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years. This book is a practical tool that any professional game developer or student can use right away and includes the most complete overview of UX in games existing today.

Sex on the Brain
Sex on the Brain

Author: Deborah Blum

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1998-07-01

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780140263480

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Go beyond the headlines and the hype to get the newest findings in the burgeoning field of gender studies. Drawing on disciplines that include evolutionary science, anthropology, animal behavior, neuroscience, psychology, and endocrinology, Deborah Blum explores matters ranging from the link between immunology and sex to male/female gossip styles. The results are intriguing, startling, and often very amusing. For instance, did you know that. . . • Male testosterone levels drop in happy marriages; scientists speculate that women may use monogamy to control male behavior • Young female children who are in day-care are apt to be more secure than those kept at home; young male children less so • Anthropologists classify Western societies as "mildly polygamous" The Los Angeles Times has called Sex on the Brain "superbly crafted science writing, graced by unusual compassion, wit, and intelligence, that forms an important addition to the literature of gender studies."

Narratives, Nerdfighters, and New Media
Narratives, Nerdfighters, and New Media

Author: Jennifer Burek Pierce

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 2020-11-15

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 160938718X

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For decades, we’ve been warned that video killed the radio star, and, more recently, that social media has replaced reading. Nerdfighteria, a first-of-its-kind online literary community with nearly three million members, challenges these assumptions. It is the brainchild of brothers Hank and John Green, who provide literary themed programming on their website and YouTube channel, including video clips from John, a best-selling author most famous for his young adult book, The Fault in Our Stars. These clips not only give fans personal insights into his works and the writing process writ large, they also provide unique access to the author, inspiring fans to create their own fan art and make connections with one another. In the twenty-first century, reading and watching videos are related activities that allow people to engage with authors and other readers. Whether they turn to The Fault in Our Stars or titles by lesser-known authors, Nerdfighters are readers. Incorporating thousands of testimonials about what they read and why, Jennifer Burek Pierce not only sheds light on this particular online community, she also reveals what it tells us about the changing nature of reading in the digital age. In Nerdfighteria, we find a community who shows us that being online doesn’t mean disinterest in books.

The Male Brain
The Male Brain

Author: Louann Brizendine, MD

Publisher: Harmony

Published: 2011-01-25

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0767927540

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From the author of the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller The Female Brain, here is the eagerly awaited follow-up book that demystifies the puzzling male brain. Dr. Louann Brizendine, the founder of the first clinic in the country to study gender differences in brain, behavior, and hormones, turns her attention to the male brain, showing how, through every phase of life, the "male reality" is fundamentally different from the female one. Exploring the latest breakthroughs in male psychology and neurology with her trademark accessibility and candor, she reveals that the male brain: -is a lean, mean, problem-solving machine. Faced with a personal problem, a man will use his analytical brain structures, not his emotional ones, to find a solution. -thrives under competition, instinctively plays rough and is obsessed with rank and hierarchy. -has an area for sexual pursuit that is 2.5 times larger than the female brain, consuming him with sexual fantasies about female body parts. -experiences such a massive increase in testosterone at puberty that he perceive others' faces to be more aggressive. The Male Brain finally overturns the stereotypes. Impeccably researched and at the cutting edge of scientific knowledge, this is a book that every man, and especially every woman bedeviled by a man, will need to own.

The Molecule of More
The Molecule of More

Author: Daniel Z. Lieberman

Publisher: BenBella Books

Published: 2018-08-14

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1946885290

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Why are we obsessed with the things we want only to be bored when we get them? Why is addiction perfectly logical to an addict? Why does love change so quickly from passion to indifference? Why are some people die-hard liberals and others hardcore conservatives? Why are we always hopeful for solutions even in the darkest times—and so good at figuring them out? The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas—and progress itself. Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more—more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it's why we gamble and squander. From dopamine's point of view, it's not the having that matters. It's getting something—anything—that's new. From this understanding—the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it—we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion—and we can even predict those behaviors in ourselves and others. In The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, George Washington University professor and psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, and Georgetown University lecturer Michael E. Long present a potentially life-changing proposal: Much of human life has an unconsidered component that explains an array of behaviors previously thought to be unrelated, including why winners cheat, why geniuses often suffer with mental illness, why nearly all diets fail, and why the brains of liberals and conservatives really are different.

Transforming Young Adult Services
Transforming Young Adult Services

Author: Anthony Bernier

Publisher: American Library Association

Published: 2019-05-20

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 0838919332

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Now showcasing an even more rigorous debate about the theory and practice of YA librarianship than its first edition, this "provocative presentation of diverse viewpoints by leaders in the field" (Catholic Library World) has been updated and expanded to incorporate recent advances in critical youth studies.

Youth Information-seeking Behavior II
Youth Information-seeking Behavior II

Author: Mary K. Chelton

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 9780810856547

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Presents an historical overview of the literature on children's use and understanding of electronic information systems.

Miseducation
Miseducation

Author: A. J. Angulo

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1421419335

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A provocative collection that explores how intentional ignorance seeps into formal education. Honorable Mention for the PROSE Education Theory Award of the Association of American Publishers Ignorance, or the study of ignorance, is having a moment. Ignorance plays a powerful role in shaping public opinion, channeling our politics, and even directing scholarly research. The first collection of essays to grapple with the historical interplay between education and ignorance, Miseducation finds ignorance—and its social production through naïveté, passivity, and active agency—at the center of many pivotal historical developments. Ignorance allowed Americans to maintain the institution of slavery, Nazis to promote ideas of race that fomented genocide in the 1930s, and tobacco companies to downplay the dangers of cigarettes. Today, ignorance enables some to deny the fossil record and others to ignore climate science. A. J. Angulo brings together seventeen experts from across the scholarly spectrum to explore how intentional ignorance seeps into formal education. Each chapter identifies education as a critical site for advancing our still-limited understanding of what exactly ignorance is, where it comes from, and how it is diffused, maintained, and regulated in society. Miseducation also challenges the notion that schools are, ideally, unimpeachable sites of knowledge production, access, and equity. By investigating how laws, myths, national aspirations, and global relations have recast and, at times, distorted the key purposes of education, this pathbreaking book sheds light on the role of ignorance in shaping ideas, public opinion, and policy.