Media releases

• Community-crafted ‘motherhood’ games to shine on Mother’s Day weekend

  Tuesday, May 07, 2024 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: May 7 2024 – R0060

  Score points with Mom this weekend by putting yourself in her shoes.

  A variety of games celebrating motherhood and all that it entails will be ready for the testing Saturday, May 11 at a free community event hosted by Brock’s Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) and the St. Catharines Public Library (SCPL).

  Held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the library’s Central Branch, the family-friendly drop-in event will feature tabletop games inspired by the community’s thoughts on motherhood and developed as the result of The Mother of All Game Jams, an innovative event that took place in February and was led by Brock University Assistant Professor Sarah Stang.

  The game jam brought the community together to reflect on their notions of motherhood and create thematic games based on their ideas with the support of DDH faculty and students lending their creative and technical expertise.

  The games will be available at Saturday’s showcase for attendees to play and provide feedback on — a key part of game creation, says Stang.

  With names such as “Hectic Household Hustle,” which sees players roleplay as mother and child, each with their own goals to accomplish, and “The Mother Load,” where players must balance chores, child care and their own well-being, it’s clear motherhood is not child’s play.

  “Showcasing the games for the community not only encourages everyone to think about what it means to be a mother and to grow their interest in game design, but it’s also a way to get valuable feedback on how these games portray the experience of motherhood,” she says.

  To kick off the festivities, Stang will share reflections on how the games have evolved since their inception at the previous game jam. The public will then be invited to play the games, interact with game creators and try their hand at making motherhood-themed games themselves.

  Throughout the day, informational resources for parents and caregivers will also be available with participation from Niagara Parents and Niagara Health shedding light on the many services families can access in the region, including EarlyON Centres, health-care advice and dental support for children.

  “Sharing these games with the community is a fantastic way to show off the exciting things that we do in Digital Humanities,” Stang says. “This is also a valuable way to build connections with our community in Niagara.”

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Maryanne St. Denis, Manager, Content and Communications, Brock University mstdenis@brocku.ca or 905-246-0256

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock research provides tips to reduce children’s lying

  Tuesday, May 07, 2024 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: May 6 2024 – R0059

  Getting children to speak the truth can be a struggle at times. While a lie, when discovered, is often followed by a punishment, there’s a more effective way to prevent future fibbing, says new Brock-led research.

  “Previous studies have found punishing lie-telling actually increases this behaviour because children are afraid of getting in trouble,” says Brock Professor of Psychology Angela Evans, lead author of “Encouraging Honesty: Developmental Differences in the Influence of Honesty Promotion Techniques.”

  A combination of techniques that encourage and praise truth-telling has been shown to reduce whether children lie to conceal a wrongdoing, she adds.

  Evans and McGill University Professor of Educational and Counselling Psychology Victoria Talwar conducted a two-part study, with each portion designed to test the effectiveness of a range of honesty promotion techniques in children aged three to eight, separated into two-year age groups.

  One part saw the researchers test whether the combination of two techniques — modelling, where children are exposed to examples of other people being honest; and consequences, which shows children a positive outcome of truth-telling, approval from parents and others when the truth is spoken — would further boost truth-telling in children across age groups.

  A total of 228 children participated in an exercise in which each child was left alone in a room with a toy on a table behind where the child was sitting. The experimenter instructed the child not to peek at the toy and then left the room, with a hidden camera recording what the child did when alone. Most of the children peeked at the toy.

  After returning to the room, the experimenter read a story to the child. Some children heard a version about a character who modelled honesty by admitting they broke a window with their bouncy ball. Others heard a story without the character owning up to breaking the window but the mother saying she would be pleased if her child told the truth, which simulated consequences.

  Finally, a portion of the child participants heard the full story of the character saying they broke the window, the mother’s encouragement to tell the truth and praise for the character for having done so: “I’m glad you did not lie. It makes me happy that you told the truth.”

  The child was then asked whether they had peeked at the toy.

  The researchers found children across all age groups who heard the full version of the story were the most likely to confess peeking at the toy compared to those who heard the versions containing only modelling or consequences.

  “Our findings suggest that modelling honesty or telling children about the positive outcomes of honesty are not enough and that children need to see both the modelling of honesty and what the consequences of doing so are together,” says Evans.

  She encourages parents to provide models of honesty for their children through parental behaviour, reading stories such as George Washington and the Cherry Tree that encourage truth-telling, and rewarding honesty in day-to-day interactions.

  “As parents, the gut reaction when a child has done something wrong is to respond to the negative behaviour that’s happened,” says Evans. “This study is a reminder to praise the child for telling the truth about their wrongdoing, rather than focusing on the wrongdoing itself.”

  Evans recommends considering a lesser punishment for wrongdoing, such as one week without screen time instead of two, because they told the truth — and being explicit that the difference is due to their honesty.

  In the other part of the study, researchers looked at two additional techniques — self-awareness and promising to be honest — to determine which ones encouraged truth-telling in the age groups.

  To encourage self-awareness, the researchers had children look in the mirror and point to parts of their own face and state their name, grade or age.

  Researchers found self-awareness was most effective in reducing lie-telling for three- to four-year-olds, while promising to tell the truth reduced lie-telling for the seven- to eight-year-olds.

  The study, published in March, was funded by the federal government through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Maryanne St. Denis, Manager, Content and Communications, Brock University mstdenis@brocku.ca or 905-246-0256

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  Categories: Media releases