Chapter 9 Exercises: Notifications as Triggers — The Architecture of Compulsive Checking

These 35 exercises are organized across five tiers of increasing depth and engagement. Tier 1 exercises build foundational comprehension. Tier 5 exercises require original research, extended reflection, or creative production.

Tier 1: Comprehension and Recall

These exercises confirm understanding of key concepts from the chapter. They are appropriate for individual review or low-stakes assessment.

Exercise 1.1 — The Conditioning Chain In your own words, describe the Pavlovian conditioning chain that Chapter 9 proposes operates in smartphone notification behavior. Identify: (a) the conditioned stimulus, (b) the unconditioned stimulus, (c) the conditioned response, and (d) the unconditioned response. Be specific to the smartphone context rather than restating the generic Pavlov example.

Exercise 1.2 — The 23-Minute Finding Explain Gloria Mark's 23-minute finding. What was she measuring? What were the conditions of her research? What does "23 minutes to recover" actually mean — what is the user recovering from and to? Why does this finding matter for understanding notifications?

Exercise 1.3 — Vagueness as Design Choice The chapter argues that vague notification text ("Someone commented") outperforms specific text ("Sarah K. commented 'Great photo!'") in click-through rates. Explain the psychological mechanism that makes this true. Use George Loewenstein's information gap theory as part of your explanation.

Exercise 1.4 — Variable Ratio Reinforcement Define variable ratio reinforcement and explain why it produces more durable behavior than fixed reinforcement schedules. Then explain how smartphone notifications implement a variable ratio reinforcement schedule. What is the "ratio" being varied? What is the "reinforcement"?

Exercise 1.5 — Badge Count Psychology Explain two distinct psychological mechanisms through which a red notification badge with a number produces the urge to open an app. Name both mechanisms and explain how each one operates.

Exercise 1.6 — Permission Architecture Describe the two-stage notification permission strategy used by sophisticated iOS apps. Why is the two-stage approach more effective than simply showing the native iOS dialog immediately? What does this tell you about the design intent behind the system?

Exercise 1.7 — Habituation and Its Consequences Define habituation in the context of notifications. Explain why it creates a structural problem for platforms. Describe three specific strategies platforms use to counteract habituation.

Tier 2: Application and Analysis

These exercises ask students to apply chapter concepts to new situations or analyze examples not explicitly discussed in the chapter.

Exercise 2.1 — Notification Audit For 24 hours, record every push notification you receive. For each notification, note: (a) the platform, (b) the time of delivery, (c) whether the text was vague or specific, (d) whether you opened it, (e) how long you spent in the app after opening, and (f) whether you opened the app at the time or later as a result of the notification. After 24 hours, analyze your data: What patterns do you notice? Which platforms deliver the most notifications? Which produce the most engagement? What was the ratio of vague to specific notifications?

Exercise 2.2 — The Notification Taxonomy Create a taxonomy of every notification type you currently receive from social media apps, organizing them by: (a) information type (social validation, social communication, platform news, promotional), (b) urgency level (real-time vs. batched), (c) vagueness level, and (d) your typical behavioral response (immediate open, delayed open, ignore). What patterns emerge from your taxonomy?

Exercise 2.3 — Reverse Engineering a Notification Choose one specific notification you received recently that prompted you to open an app. Analyze it using the chapter's framework: What design elements did it use? What psychological mechanism(s) did it exploit? What information gap did it create? Was the delivery time significant? How did your actual response compare to what the platform presumably intended?

Exercise 2.4 — The Anticipatory Check For one study session (minimum 90 minutes), sit with your phone visible but face-down and count the number of times you have the impulse to check it, even when you haven't heard or felt a notification. Record the impulse even if you don't act on it. After the session: How many impulse checks did you have? How does this compare to the number of actual notifications? What does this ratio suggest about the conditioning described in the chapter?

Exercise 2.5 — Sound as Conditioned Stimulus The chapter claims that platform-specific notification sounds function as conditioned stimuli associated with platform-specific social rewards. Test this claim on yourself: Close your eyes and vividly imagine hearing each of the following sounds — Instagram's "ding," Snapchat's harp sound, a standard SMS tone. For each: What is your first emotional/cognitive response? Does each sound produce a different quality of anticipation? Write a paragraph analyzing what your responses reveal about your own conditioning history.

Exercise 2.6 — Default Effect Analysis Android enables notifications by default; iOS requires active permission. Research (or estimate based on the chapter's data) what difference this design choice makes in the percentage of users who receive notifications. Then apply Thaler and Sunstein's "nudge" framework to explain why defaults have such large effects. What would "ethical notification defaults" look like, and what would the business cost to platforms be?

Exercise 2.7 — Notification Design Critique Find three actual notification examples (screenshots from your own phone, or from published examples online). For each, analyze: What psychological mechanism does the text exploit? Is it vague or specific, and why? What does it promise? Is the promise typically kept? How would you redesign the notification to prioritize user information needs over platform engagement goals?

Tier 3: Synthesis and Evaluation

These exercises ask students to integrate multiple concepts, evaluate competing arguments, or construct original analyses.

Exercise 3.1 — The Information Framing vs. The Interruption Framing Chapter 9 argues that the "information delivery" framing of notifications is misleading and that the "interruption mechanism" framing is more accurate. Construct the strongest possible case for the information delivery framing — steelman the opposing view. Then explain why the chapter's evidence still supports the interruption framing as more accurate. What would you need to observe to be convinced the information framing was right?

Exercise 3.2 — Comparing Conditioning Systems The chapter draws parallels between Pavlov's dogs, slot machines, and smartphone notifications. Are these parallels exact, approximate, or misleading? Identify at least two ways in which smartphone notification conditioning differs from classical Pavlovian conditioning in ways that matter for understanding its behavioral effects. Does it change the chapter's core argument that notifications are conditioned stimuli?

Exercise 3.3 — The Consent Problem Chapter 9 argues that notification permission consent is "real in the sense that the button was pressed" but not "real in the sense that most users would recognize the system being consented to." Evaluate this claim. What would genuine informed consent to a notification system require? Is genuine informed consent achievable in this context? What are the ethical implications for platform design?

Exercise 3.4 — Individual Variation Chapter 9 presents fairly general claims about notification psychology. Consider: In what ways might different users respond differently to notification design? What individual characteristics (age, personality, social needs, experience, platform investment) might moderate the effects described? What evidence would you need to assess individual variation, and why does that variation matter for the chapter's conclusions?

Exercise 3.5 — The Attention Economy Argument Connect Chapter 9's specific findings about notifications to the broader "attention economy" framework introduced earlier in the book. Notifications are one mechanism by which platforms compete for user attention. How do they fit within the larger attention economy? What does analyzing notifications reveal about the attention economy that more abstract descriptions do not?

Exercise 3.6 — Designing Against Notification Dark Patterns Imagine you are a product designer at a social media company who has read this chapter and wants to redesign the notification system to genuinely serve users rather than exploit them. What specific changes would you make to: (a) permission prompts, (b) notification text, (c) delivery timing, (d) badge design, (e) settings accessibility? What is the estimated engagement cost of each change? Is there a design that serves both users and the platform's business model?

Exercise 3.7 — Maya's Counterfactual The chapter reconstructs Maya's notification morning in detail. Imagine an alternative morning in which all of Maya's apps had been redesigned according to genuinely user-serving notification principles. Reconstruct her morning with these redesigned notifications. What changes? What stays the same? What does the comparison reveal about what platform notification design is actually optimizing for?

Tier 4: Research and Original Investigation

These exercises require independent research, extended engagement with primary sources, or systematic data collection.

Exercise 4.1 — Extended Notification Study Conduct a structured 7-day notification study. Each day, choose one of the following conditions and record your phone use metrics: Day 1: notifications on (baseline). Days 2-3: all social media notifications off. Days 4-5: social media notifications on. Days 6-7: all notifications off. Measure: number of times you check your phone per day, subjective focus rating (1-10) three times daily, subjective stress rating (1-10) three times daily. Write a 500-word analysis of your findings.

Exercise 4.2 — Gloria Mark Deep Dive Read at least two of Gloria Mark's primary research papers on interruption and attention (her 2004 CHI paper and at least one subsequent paper). Write a 500-word critical analysis of her research methodology: What are the strengths of her approach? What are the limitations? How well do her workplace interruption findings translate to the smartphone notification context? What would you need to see to be fully confident in the 23-minute figure's applicability to social media use?

Exercise 4.3 — Platform Notification Settings Mapping Select three major social media apps you use. For each, map the complete notification settings architecture: How many individual toggles exist? How many levels of menus must you navigate to reach them? How long does it take you to find the setting to disable a specific notification type? Create a comparative diagram showing this architecture. Write an analysis applying Brignull's dark patterns framework to your findings.

Exercise 4.4 — Historical Notification Analysis Research the history of push notification technology in mobile computing, from the introduction of Apple Push Notification Service in 2009 to the present. Document at least five significant changes in how platforms use notifications over this period. Analyze the trajectory: Has notification design become more or less user-serving over time? What forces have driven the changes?

Exercise 4.5 — Comparative Platform Analysis Compare the notification systems of two competing platforms in the same category (e.g., Instagram vs. TikTok, or Twitter/X vs. Mastodon). Analyze: How do their notification types, timing, text strategies, and permission architectures compare? What does the comparison reveal about how each platform's business model shapes its notification design? Which is more user-serving, and how can you tell?

Tier 5: Creative, Reflective, and Extended Work

These exercises require extended original writing, design work, or deep personal reflection.

Exercise 5.1 — Personal Conditioning History Write a 600-word personal essay examining your own notification conditioning history. When did you first get a smartphone? How have your checking habits changed over time? Can you identify specific platforms or specific notification types that you feel particularly conditioned to respond to? Have you ever successfully changed your notification behavior — and if so, how? Be honest about what you observe in yourself without self-judgment.

Exercise 5.2 — Notification System Redesign Prototype Design a detailed prototype for a "user-first notification system" for a social media platform of your choice. Your prototype should specify: notification categories and their default states, permission prompt design and timing, text formulation guidelines, delivery timing principles, settings architecture, and mechanisms to help users understand and manage their notification exposure. Write a 400-word design rationale explaining the principles behind your choices and the trade-offs involved.

Exercise 5.3 — The Interruption Economy Essay Write a 700-word essay arguing either for or against the following proposition: "Platforms should be legally required to disclose, at the point of notification permission, the specific behavioral optimization systems their notifications employ, including delivery timing algorithms and text formulation strategies." Use evidence from Chapter 9 and any additional sources you find.

Exercise 5.4 — Teaching the Concept Design a 15-minute lesson for high school students (age 15-17) explaining how notification conditioning works. Your lesson should include: an opening hook (not just a definition), at least one hands-on activity or demonstration, specific examples relevant to the age group, and a concrete takeaway the students can apply in their own lives. Write out the full lesson plan and any materials you would use.

Exercise 5.5 — Longitudinal Reflection Over the course of one month, implement at least three changes to your notification settings based on Chapter 9's analysis. Keep a brief weekly journal (150-200 words per entry) documenting: what changes you made, how they affected your behavior and attention, what resistance you encountered (internal or platform-generated), and what you learned. At the end of the month, write a 500-word synthesis of what the experiment revealed about your own relationship with notifications.

Exercise 5.6 — Interview and Report Interview two people of different generations (e.g., one teenager and one person over 40) about their experience with phone notifications. Ask about: their notification habits, whether they've tried to change them, what emotions notifications produce, and their awareness of notification design practices. Write a 500-word comparative report analyzing what their responses reveal about generational differences in notification conditioning and awareness.

Exercise 5.7 — The Ethics of Notification Design Write a 700-word critical ethics analysis of platform notification design practices as described in Chapter 9. Your analysis should engage with at least two ethical frameworks (e.g., consequentialism, deontology, care ethics, virtue ethics) and address: the consent question, the attention fragmentation question, the adolescent user question, and the question of what — if anything — should be done differently by platforms, regulators, or users themselves.