Definition Positive reinforcement
When something good reliably follows an action, you do that action more often. In Catch the Ghost, the good thing lands the moment a Deep Focus session ends: a chapter from history, plus coins and XP.
Definition Intrinsic motivation and curiosity
Intrinsic motivation is wanting to do something because it is interesting in itself, and paying people for what they already enjoy can make them enjoy it less. So in Catch the Ghost the story is the reason to come back, and the coins are a bonus.
Definition Hyperbolic discounting
Hyperbolic discounting is why a small reward now beats a bigger one later: a reward loses its pull the further away it is, and it loses it fastest close to the present. Catch the Ghost puts the reward 25 minutes away. Finish the session and the chapter is yours.
Definition The planning fallacy
The planning fallacy is the habit of underestimating how long your own tasks will take, even when the last one ran late too. A Deep Focus session is a fixed block of 25 to 120 minutes, so progress becomes something you can count.
Definition Burnout
Burnout is a state of mental, emotional, and often physical exhaustion caused by prolonged stress or overwork. A pace you can keep matters, so in Catch the Ghost you pick the length of every session, and a break is offered when it ends.
Definition Commitment device
A commitment device is a choice you make now that raises the cost of abandoning your own plan later. Odysseus had himself tied to the mast; today it might be a savings account locked until you reach your own goal. In Catch the Ghost it is a coin stake you choose yourself.
Definition Loss aversion
Losing something hurts more than gaining the same thing feels good. In Catch the Ghost, the chapter painting itself in is already on the line: quit early and it gets away.
Definition Social facilitation and the Köhler effect
Social facilitation is the long-established finding that the mere presence of other people changes how well you work: better on work you know, sometimes worse on something new. The Köhler effect is its sharper cousin: paired with someone on a task where you both have to deliver, the weaker partner works harder than they would alone.
Definition The curiosity gap and narrative transportation
Curiosity is an itch that arrives the moment you notice a gap between what you know and what you want to know, and it sharpens as the gap narrows. Narrative transportation is what happens once you are inside a story: absorbed readers are moved by it in a way informed ones are not. So every ghost is a life told chapter by chapter, with the next one always missing.
Definition Goal setting and implementation intentions
Specific, challenging goals get more effort out of you than being told to do your best. Implementation intentions take it one step further: decide in advance when and where you will act, "when X happens, I will do Y", and an intention turns into action far more reliably than the goal alone. In Catch the Ghost that is a daily goal in sessions, with a reminder at a time you choose.
Definition A habit forms as something you repeat in the same setting becomes automatic. It takes longer than folklore suggests, about two months for the typical person and much longer for some, and one missed day does not set it back. So a broken streak in Catch the Ghost can be bought back.
