New Study: People Wanted for Clinical Trial of Logicball Game for Critical Thinking

March 1, 2009 - PRLog -- “Never before in history have so many people been publicly arguing. When you add up all the forums, comment sections, blogs, videos, democratic discourse, etc. this becomes clear, “ according to Ken Long, the inventor of Logicball. Long goes on to say, “Fortunately there is a method for crafting arguments, generally called critical thinking, that we can learn, to organize and improve our arguing skills.”

These critical thinking skills are used when you write an argumentative or persuasive essay, or when you are communicating your point of view (in a business meeting, etc.) or critiquing a point of view (in your studies, etc.).

The SUNY critical thinking rubric defines two learning outcomes as General Education requirements: the ability to (1) develop and (2) critique arguments, in other words, skill in the science of arguments.

Logicball is a game based learning tool designed to directly exercise these SUNY rubric learning outcomes. The hypothesis of the study is that repetitive practice of the Logicball game will improve the player's argument construction and analysis skills.

The brain is now known to be "plastic," meaning malleable. So will the repetitive firing of the frontal cortex cells, in a sort of brain gym where "lifting weights" is doing Logicball puzzles, cause an improvement in critical thinking skill? That's what this clinical trial, conducted by the renowned critical thinking expert Dr. Gerald Nosich (Buffalo State SUNY), will help determine.

Participants in the study will play two games of Logicball per week for 7 weeks. Each game has ten puzzles, so a total of 140 Logicball puzzles will be "weight lifted" in the course of this online study. Each Logicball puzzle is scored according to the player's argument accuracy and argument speed.

If you'd like to participate in this study, and receive a free Logicball membership, please contact admin(at)thenll.com.  People from around the world are needed, so please tell your friends. The Logicball study begins Thursday March 19th.

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Contact Information
To participate in this study, please contact:
admin(at)thenll.com

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About The National Logicball League:
The National Logicball League is the maker of the patent pending Logicball (tm), an online computer program that allows users to exercise their arguments skills, by playing the Logicball game. The program (currently in closed beta) is designed to directly exercise the SUNY (State University of New York) Critical Thinking Rubric skills. The NLL operates the Logicball Brain Gym, and conducts NLL tournaments and prize bowls.