By Lana Kang
lkang01@syr.edu
Do you have
10 seconds? Even a quick game can teach you something new or improve your
social skills, memory, and mood.
Take some
easy games from your childhood like Tic-Tac-Toe and Rock Paper Scissors. These
can have surprising educational value and significantly contribute to skill and strategic
development.
Tic-Tac-Toe
So how does
one play Tic-Tac-Toe? It is often played on a 3x3 grid with two players using x’s
and o’s as respectively. The players take turns putting (or drawing in) their
icon in the grid. The object of the game is to get 3 in a row before your
opponent. It is also possible for the game to end in a tie (no winner).
If you
analyze the game, it becomes a game of reactions. Player 1 initiates, Player 2
reacts, Player 1 reacts, etc. But if you break it down further, how does Player
1 choose where to place their chip? Oftentimes, they analyze the board and
which location would give them the best chance for winning.
(from “The Educational Value of
Tic-Tac-Toe for Four-to Six-Year-Olds” by Constance Kamii and Mariko Nagahiro)
When Player
2 reacts, do they react by initiating their own attack or choose to take a more
defensive stance (blocking your opponent) right off the bat?
This
cost/gain analysis on whether to take a more risky and aggressive stance or a
more defensive position can be applied to fields such as business, economics
and the stock market, or even to war strategies. For example (if we take a
storytelling view of it), say the grid represents a country and the goal of the
players (generals) is to make it across the country with their armies before
the other. Each X and O represents a supply train and the supply train must
stretch across the board for the armies to cross successfully.
While
tic-tac-toe has been played by all ages and all around the world for centuries,
it can be the base of some very interesting and in-depth study. It has been applied
by Kamii and Nagahiro (2008) to measure development in 4-6 year olds “because
it encourages children to make many kinds of logico-mathematical relations a)
in an inter-related way and b) in a hierarchical way” (pg. 3). The inter-related relationships come from
Piaget and include classification, serial, numerical, spatial, and temporal
while the hierarchical aspect shows that the development in the inter-related relationships
becomes more sophisticated with age and practice (Kamii and Nagahiro 2008). Another
study focused on tic-tac-toe with a mathematical analysis in a probabilistic
neural network context (Grim, Somol, and Pudil 2005).
Rock Paper
Scissors (RPS)
RPS is a
well-known game, like Tic-Tac-Toe, used by people of all ages and throughout
the world.
Often used
for minor decisions such as who gets to go first, ride shotgun, get the last
piece of pie, the rules are simple. Two or more people can play. The players
count or say, “Rock, Paper, Scissors Shoot! And put out their hand in the shape
of one of the three objects (see above). Rock crushes scissors, scissors cut
paper, paper covers rock.
In a New York Times article interviewing two RPS Champions, Bob Cooper (World Champion) and Bryan Bennett (N. America Champion) the social aspect is stressed by both. In particular, they stress reading opponents. According to Cooper, “It is not about predicting what your opponent will throw; it is about predicting what your opponent predicts you will throw.” Bennett adds, “Jocks and meatheads like to start with rock. Women are often partial to scissors. More ethereal types prefer paper.” He prefers playing against men since he finds women harder to read and his strategies include using body language tells and reading playing patterns such as gambits (Applebome 2006).
Another opinion was given by Douglas Walker, co-founder of the World RPS Society in an interview with The Washington Times. He believed that the hands used in play reveal characteristics about a player. “Paper is subtle, the choice of intellectual, passive-aggressive types. Scissors are devious, a tool of controlled malice. Rock is between-the-eyes intimidation, preferred by beginners and players who have been backed into a corner.” (The Washington Times, 2004)
For more about RPS gambits and patterns, go to the World RPS Society’s web page. http://www.worldrps.com/gambits.html
For more on mathematical analyses and strategies for winning in RPS, please read “Winning at Rock-Paper-Scissors” by Derek Eyler, Zachary Shalla, Andrew Doumaux and Tim McDevitt or “Rock Paper Scissors” by Bryan McCannon.
References
Applebome, P. (2006, November 26). A Winning Hand,
and a Zen Master. New York Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/nyregion/26towns.html?_r=1&
Eyler, D., Shalla, Z., Doumaux, A., & and
McDevitt, T. (2009). Winning at Rock-Paper-Scissors. Mathematical
Association of America, 125-1285. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25653686
Grim, J., Somol, P., & Pavel, P. (2005,
September). Probabilistic neural network playing and learning Tic-Tac-Toe. Pattern
Recognition Letters, 26(12), 1866-1873.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.patrec.2005.03.008
Kamii, C., & Nagahiro, M. (2008, May). The
Educational Value of Tic-Tac-Tow for Four- to Six-Year-Olds. Teaching
Children Mathematics, 14(9), 523-527. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41199962
McCannon, B. (2007). Rock Paper Scissors. Journal
of Economics, 92(1), pp. 67-88.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00712-007-0263-5
The Washington Times. (2004, December 10). Fists Fly
in Game of Strategy. The Washington Times. Retrieved from
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/10/20041210-120729-4008r/?page=all#pagebreak
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