Interesting research related to cognitive resources. Vividly imagining something (such as eating chocolate) takes away brain power from other tasks.  How might game design (or teaching) harness and optimize cognitive resources?

"Many research studies suggest that mental imagery may be a key component of food cravings -- when people crave a specific food, they have vivid images of that food. Results of one study showed that the strength of participants' cravings was linked to how vividly they imagined the food. Mental imagery (imagining food or anything else) takes up cognitive resources, or brain power. Studies have shown that when subjects are imagining something, they have a hard time completing various cognitive tasks. In one experiment, volunteers who were craving chocolate recalled fewer words and took longer to solve math problems than volunteers who were not craving chocolate. These links between food cravings and mental imagery, along with the findings that mental imagery takes up cognitive resources, may help to explain why food cravings can be so disruptive: As we are imagining a specific food, much of our brain power is focused on that food, and we have a hard time with other tasks."

E. Kemps, M. Tiggemann. A Cognitive Experimental Approach to Understanding and Reducing Food Cravings. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2010; 19 (2): 86 DOI: 10.1177/0963721410364494

Association for Psychological Science (2010, May 17). The psychology of food cravings. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 18, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/05/100517172300.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

The Psychology Of Games: The Glitcher's Dilemma
Gamasutra March 5
by Jamie Madigan
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27487/The_Psychology_Of_Games_The_Glitchers_Dilemma.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29
Madigan writes about 4 gaming examples of “the prisoners dilemma.”  You and your opponent must each decide whether to cheat or follow social or game rules.  If you cheat and they do not, you win. If they cheat and you do not, they win. If both cheat, there is mayhem. If neither cheats, play is fair.
 

What's really more interesting and useful, though, is to look at what psychology has to show us about when people DON'T choose the purely rational option of abusing a glitch or a winning but boring strategy. Generally, people are more likely to do this when:
- They know they will be playing against their opponents in the future and face retribution
- They expect to interact with their opponents outside the game
- They don't expect to remain anonymous
- They don't know how many games will be played with the same person”

Some players are just griefers out to disrupt the game no matter what.
Some players won't cheat out of a sense of honor.
Some value their ranking on a leaderboard more than a sense
of fair play for any individual match.
But in general, playing with friends or with a consistent group of strangers is most likely to result in fair play.

http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/test-task-sat.php

Jeff Sauro blogs about the difference between measuring performance satistifactin about a jost-completed task versus perception satisfaction about the application in general.

"Post-test perception satisfaction will tell you what users think of your website or application. Task-level performance satisfaction will tell you what to fix to improve overall impressions."

In this Gamasutra feature, psychologist Jamie Madigan,jamie@psychologyofgames.com, examines how developers can use time psychology to make games more fun, manipulating player perception of time through the magic of metacognition.
February 11, 2010

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27159/Analysis_Fun_is_Had_When_Your_T...

Madigan proposes that game designers manipulate time -- state a certain duration to set expectations and then end earlier, resulting in a perception that time must have flown so the player must have been having so much fun it seemed to have flown by...

See Madigan's web site about the overlap between psychology and video games: The Psychology of Games, http://www.psychologyofgames.com/

References: Sackett, A., Meyvis, T., Nelson, L., Converse, B. & Sackett, A., (2010). You're Having Fun When Time Flies: The Hedonic Consequences of Subjective Time Progression. Psychological Science, January; Schachter, S. (1971). Emotion, Obesity, and Crime. New York: Academic Press.