Wilmot’s Warehouse is a cooperative board game created by someone who was paying attention during coverage of the memory chapter in their Intro Psych course. (Their Amazon page has much more information about the game.)
The game’s premise is simple. Flip over tiles to see an abstract image. Place the tile upside down on the board (representing a warehouse) so that the image is hidden. After all the tiles have been placed, each player gets a bunch of new image tiles that may or may not match the ones face down on the board. The goal is to match the new tiles with the hidden ones. As quickly as possible!
The memorization happens as the original image tiles are being added to the board. When a player turns over an image tile, all the players must decide what the object is. Is it a crescent moon, a half-eaten cookie, a croissant, or a diaper? Once the decision is made, the tile is placed upside down in the middle of the board. The next tile in the stack is flipped to reveal its image. Let’s say it is an image of three circles. Again, the players must decide what the three circles represent. Three donuts? Three eyeballs? Three oranges? Once the group decides, they then must decide where they are going to place it on the board. It must be placed upside down in an empty spot adjacent to the first tile.
As tiles are added to the board, it will be harder and harder to remember which tile is where. A mnemonic is needed! The game developers recommend the linking technique, where players make a story out of the items. A diaper is placed over the head of the creature with three eyeballs, for example. For additional help remembering this, place the eyeball tile in a space directly below the diaper so that the diaper is “over” the eyes.
I would also give the loci technique a try. Mentally place the items in the room where the game is being played so that the items pictured in the room match their placement on the board. For example, mentally put the first tile—the diaper—on the table where the game is being played. Place the second tile—the three eyes—to the right of the first tile. Picture the player sitting on that side of the table with three eyes.
To add to game difficulty, periodically an “idea” card is thrown into the mix. Sometimes the warehouse’s management gets an idea, and the workers—er, players—must execute the idea. For example, the next several cards must be placed on the outer edges of the warehouse—er, board.
This 7-minute video provides an excellent overview of the game. The game developers say that the game is for 2 to 6+ players. It really seems like the + in 6+ is quite true. While you could have a class of 35 playing the game, I’d try it in the following way—after covering mnemonics, of course!
Randomly select six students to be the players. They are the ones who are making the decisions about what the objects are and how they are connected in a story (linking) or in the room (loci). The observers should be memorizing right along with the players. Just be sure that the board is visible to everyone. After all of the tiles have been placed and it is time to match, randomly choose six observers to do the matching. Remember, the game is cooperative, so discussion is permitted, encouraged even. Use the game rules to determine the class score. What’s the prize? Extra credit points—more points for higher scores? Swag? Some instructors gather pens and other swag at conferences for just such events. More swag for higher scores? Stickers? Higher scores get more desirable stickers.
The game developers estimate 30 minutes per game. If you don’t want to take the time to play this during class, it could be a fun activity for a psychology club/Psi Chi/Psi Beta/Psi Alpha meeting. If you had a couple of these games on hand, teams could compete for highest score. Or you could challenge all teams to reach a particular score.
If you decide to play, let me know how it goes!
