Mark Rober, the celebrated YouTuber and former NASA engineer, captivated audiences at TEDxPenn with a compelling talk about the psychology of learning, cleverly titled “The Super Mario Effect – Tricking Your Brain into Learning More.” While Rober is widely recognized for his spectacular engineering feats and engaging science communication, a lesser-known yet profoundly insightful experiment he conducted involved a seemingly simple online car coding puzzle. This puzzle, designed to gauge the public’s ability to learn basic programming, inadvertently unveiled a powerful principle about how we approach challenges and setbacks – a principle Rober masterfully illustrates through the nostalgic lens of Super Mario Bros.
Rober’s experiment began innocently enough. He invited his YouTube followers to engage with a computer programming puzzle he created with a colleague. The challenge was straightforward: guide a virtual car through a maze using drag-and-drop code blocks representing fundamental programming commands like if-else statements and while loops. Participants were tasked with arranging these blocks logically, hitting “Run,” and observing if their coded instructions successfully navigated the car to its destination. The premise was to demonstrate the accessibility of coding to individuals from all backgrounds, regardless of prior experience. Over 50,000 individuals accepted the challenge, eager to test their logical reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Unbeknownst to the participants, Rober and his team had subtly engineered two versions of the car coding puzzle, introducing a minor yet psychologically significant variation. Both versions started each participant with 200 points. However, the crucial difference lay in the feedback mechanism after an unsuccessful attempt. In one version, failure was met with a neutral message: “That didn’t work. Please try again.” No points were deducted, and the focus remained solely on the attempt itself.
The second version, however, incorporated a subtle penalty for each failed attempt. Participants who didn’t succeed received a slightly altered message: “That didn’t work. You lost 5 points. You now have 195 points. Please try again.” This seemingly insignificant change – the deduction of five arbitrary, inconsequential points – had a dramatic impact on the participants’ behavior and learning outcomes. These points held no real-world value, were purely for the context of the puzzle, and yet, their presence altered the psychology of failure.
The results were striking and revealed a significant disparity in success rates between the two groups. Participants who were penalized with point deductions for unsuccessful attempts achieved a success rate of approximately 52%. Conversely, those who faced no penalty for failure exhibited a significantly higher success rate of 68%. This 16% difference, statistically significant in a dataset of 50,000 individuals, underscored the profound impact of framing failure on the learning process.
Further analysis of the data unveiled an even more telling metric: the number of attempts participants made before successfully solving the car coding puzzle. The group that was not penalized for failure attempted the puzzle nearly 2.5 times more often than the penalized group. This crucial insight highlighted that when failure is not perceived as a negative setback but rather as a neutral step in the learning process, individuals are significantly more persistent and willing to experiment. This increased persistence naturally translates into more opportunities for learning and, ultimately, greater success.
Rober termed this phenomenon the “Super Mario Effect.” He drew a vivid analogy to the popular video game Super Mario Bros. to illustrate his point. When playing Super Mario, gamers are constantly faced with challenges – pits to jump over, enemies to evade, and obstacles to overcome. Players rarely fixate on their failures, such as falling into a pit. Instead, the focus remains firmly on the ultimate goal: rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser. Each failure is simply a learning opportunity, a chance to adjust strategy and try again. The gamer’s mindset is geared towards progress and mastery, not dwelling on mistakes.
To further solidify the universality of the Super Mario Effect, Rober shared personal anecdotes, extending beyond the car coding puzzle experiment. He recounted his childhood fascination with Super Mario Bros. and how his and his friends’ conversations revolved around level progression and strategies for overcoming challenges, not on the numerous times they failed or the ways they “died” in the game. This inherent gamified approach to problem-solving, where failure is seen as a necessary step towards success, is what Rober argues is key to unlocking enhanced learning potential.
He then transitioned to his more recent endeavors as a science YouTuber and inventor. Rober described the often lengthy and iterative process behind creating his elaborate inventions, such as the world’s largest Super Soaker or a dartboard that automatically adjusts for a bullseye. These projects, often spanning months or even years, are fraught with setbacks, failures, and unexpected challenges. However, Rober emphasized that his approach to these engineering puzzles mirrors the Super Mario Effect. Each setback, while momentarily frustrating, is viewed as a learning opportunity, a chance to refine his approach and iterate towards the desired outcome. He explicitly connected his mindset during these complex engineering projects to the same mindset he adopted as a child playing Super Mario – focusing on the end goal and learning from each “pitfall” along the way.
Rober further illustrated the power of reframing challenges with a thought experiment. He presented the audience with two scenarios. In the first, he described a tedious “test” involving following complex instructions to press buttons in a specific sequence to progress through 32 pages. He then asked how much someone would need to be paid to endure this for an hour. In the second scenario, he rebranded the “test” as a “game,” visually transforming the button interface into a Nintendo controller. The underlying task remained identical – pressing buttons in a specific sequence to advance – but the shift in framing from “test” to “game” completely altered the perceived experience. Rober highlighted the transformative power of gamification in making even mundane or challenging tasks engaging and motivating.
This led him to reflect on his mission as a science communicator. Rober observed that science education is often perceived as daunting or intimidating, framed as a difficult “test” rather than an engaging “game.” His YouTube channel aims to counteract this perception by “tricking” viewers into learning complex scientific principles through captivating demonstrations and spectacular builds. He cited examples like a hot tub filled with liquefied sand, using these visually arresting projects as Trojan horses to introduce concepts like fluidized beds and buoyancy. By leading with the “cool” factor and focusing on the exciting outcome, Rober effectively removes the fear of failure and makes learning science more approachable and enjoyable.
In his concluding remarks, Rober reinforced the core message of the Super Mario Effect. He used a cartoon depicting two contrasting paths to a goal: a smooth, uneventful path versus a rocky, obstacle-laden path. While we might idealize the smooth path, Rober argued that real-life achievements and meaningful learning invariably resemble the rocky path. It is through navigating challenges, overcoming failures, and persisting despite setbacks that we truly learn and achieve lasting success. He reiterated that the Super Mario Effect is not simply about positive thinking or blind optimism, but about a fundamental shift in perspective – framing challenges as games, failures as learning opportunities, and focusing on the ultimate “princess” rather than the immediate “pits.”
Rober acknowledged that while the Super Mario Effect has been instrumental in his own life and demonstrated significant impact in his car coding puzzle experiment, individual experiences may vary. However, he posited that the underlying principle – the power of reframing failure – is a universal concept with broad applicability. By adopting a gamified mindset, focusing on progress over perfection, and embracing failures as stepping stones, individuals can unlock their learning potential and achieve greater success in any endeavor. The key takeaway from Mark Rober’s insightful TED Talk and his engaging car coding puzzle is that by consciously applying the Super Mario Effect, we can all “trick” our brains into learning more effectively and approaching challenges with renewed enthusiasm and resilience.
Resources for Further Reading:
Rewiring our Brain in a Healthy Way: Daniel J. Siegel at TEDxBlue (Transcript)
Baby Brains: Unlocking Our Humanity by Rebecca Saxe at TEDxCambridge (Transcript)
Is Our Society Breaking Children’s Brains?: Natasha Devon at TEDxSWPS (Transcript)
Top 10 Tips to Keep Your Brain Young: Elizabeth Amini at TEDxSoCal (Full Transcript)
