Describe Your Desk Doohickey for Fidget Widget!

By: Nina Friedman When I hit a mental roadblock while I’m working, moving always helps. I can’t keep my brain moving unless my body is moving. I might get up from my desk and take a little walk but if I’m in a time crunch I’ll just fidget around in my chair or tap out a fun rhythm. As a growing body of research shows, cognitive functioning increases when we move. In other words, moving helps us think. While Dr. Michael Karlesky was studying for his PhD at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering, he teamed up with his advisor Dr. Katherine Isbister at UC Santa Cruz’s Baskin School of Engineering to pioneer research about fidgeting. They are asking groundbreaking questions about the movements we make while we are sedentary. In his first foray into fidgeting, Karlesky made a few simple computer game applications, surveying users about their gaming experience. One ...