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Attention
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that adolescents might underestimate time while playing a video game. To test this hypothesis, 116 adolescents (14-15 years old) had to judge prospectively or retrospectively the duration of three consecutive tasks: a 8 min and a 24 min task of playing video game (Tetris) and an 8 min task of reading on a computer screen (control task). The main hypothesis received support: for a same duration, the video game task was estimated as shorter than the reading task. Moreover, participants with a game-inclined profile showed a stronger underestimation of time while playing. Finally, the short durations were overestimated and the long duration underestimated. The main findings are accounted for by an attention-based explanation.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Schema theory provides a foundation for the analysis of game play patterns created by players during their interaction with a game. Schema models derived from the analysis of play provide a rich explanatory framework for the cognitive processes underlying game play, as well as detailed hypotheses for the hierarchical structure of pleasures and rewards motivating players. Game engagement is accounted for as a process of schema selection or development, while immersion is explained in terms of levels of attentional demand in schema execution. However, schemas may not only be used to describe play, but might be used actively as cognitive models within a game engine. Predesigned schema models are knowledge representations constituting anticipated or desired learned cognitive outcomes of play. Automated analysis of player schemas and comparison with predesigned target schemas can provide a foundation for a game engine adapting or tuning game mechanics to achieve specific effects of engagement, immersion, and cognitive skill acquisition by players. Hence, schema models may enhance the play experience as well as provide a foundation for achieving explicitly represented pedagogical or therapeutic functions of games.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures were used to assess cognitive workload from expert computer gamers playing a "first-person shooter" video game. Game difficulty level was manipulated in separate conditions by adjusting the number of enemies (view, easy, medium, and hard). Infrequently presented single-stimulus tones were either ignored or counted across difficulty conditions. Game performance and tone-counting accuracy declined as game difficulty increased. ERP component amplitudes diminished for both the tone ignore and counting conditions as game difficulty increased. The findings suggest that cognitive workload induced by video gaming can be reliably assessed through behavioral and neuroelectric means, and that the single-stimulus paradigm can be a useful tool for evaluating workload in an immersive stimulus environment with less distraction than conventional tools. \copyright2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
We examined emotional valence- and arousal-related phasic psychophysiological responses to different video game events among 36 young adults who played Super Monkey Ball 2 (Sega Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). Event-related changes in zygomaticus trial. or, corrugator supercilii, and orhicularis oculi electromyographic activity, skin conductance level, and cardiac interbeat intervals were recorded. Instantaneous game events elicited reliable psychophysiological responses indexing valence and arousal. A largely linear, positive dose-response relationship between rewards obtained in the game and phasic increases in arousal was revealed. The valence of the emotional response varied as a function of the player's active participation (active coping). In addition, not only positive events, but also some putatively negative events elicited positively valenced arousal. The findings extend our understanding of the phasic changes in the emotional state during video games and a dynamic flow of events and action and may have several applied implications (e.g., for game design).
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Playing action video games enhances several different aspects of visual processing; however, the mechanisms underlying this improvement remain unclear. Here we show that playing action video games can alter fundamental characteristics of the visual system, such as the spatial resolution of visual processing across the visual field. To determine the spatial resolution of visual processing, we measured the smallest distance a distractor could be from a target without compromising target identification. This approach exploits the fact that visual processing is hindered as distractors are brought close to the target, a phenomenon known as crowding. Compared with nonplayers, action-video-game players could tolerate smaller target-distractor distances. Thus, the spatial resolution of visual processing is enhanced in this population. Critically, similar effects were observed in non-video-game players who were trained on an action video game; this result verifies a causative relationship between video-game play and augmented spatial resolution.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The authors examined whether the nature of the opponent ( computer, friend, or stranger) influences spatial presence, emotional responses, and threat and challenge appraisals when playing video games. In a within- subjects design, participants played two different video games against a computer, a friend, and a stranger. In addition to self- report ratings, cardiac interbeat intervals ( IBIs) and facial electromyography ( EMG) were measured to index physiological arousal and emotional valence. When compared to playing against a computer, playing against another human elicited higher spatial presence, engagement, anticipated threat, post- game challenge appraisals, and physiological arousal, as well as more positively valenced emotional responses. In addition, playing against a friend elicited greater spatial presence, engagement, and self- reported and physiological arousal, as well as more positively valenced facial EMG responses, compared to playing against a stranger. The nature of the opponent influences spatial presence when playing video games, possibly through the mediating influence on arousal and attentional processes.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This paper describes a framework for investigating and manipulating the attentional components of video game play in order to affect learning transfer across different task environments. Several groups of video game players (VGP) and non video game players – both hockey and non-hockey groups (NVGPH, NVGP) will be tested at baseline on several aspects of visual processing skill. The NVGP and NVGPH groups will then train for one week in an action video game playing environment. They will then be re-tested for attentional efficiency. The hockey group will also be tested before and after training on a pattern and cue recognition sport video test. We intend to show that, not only does video game play alter basic components of visual attentional resources, but that it can also enhance perceptual learning transfer across unrelated task domains.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
One current theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) proposes that a primary deficit in behavioral inhibition gives rise to secondary deficits in 4 executive functions and motor control. To date, empirical support for this model is based primarily on laboratory-based cognitive methods. This study assessed behavioral inhibition and executive functioning in children with ADHD in 2 real-life contexts: videogames (motor-skill target game, cognitively demanding adventure game) and an outing at the zoo (route tasks). Participants were a community sample of 57 boys diagnosed with ADHD (20 inattentive, 37 combined type) and 57 normally developing control boys, matched individually for age and nonverbal IQ. Operationally defined measures of behavioral inhibition and specific executive functions were derived from these activities and assessed under contrasting conditions of low or high working memory and distractor loads. There were no group differences in basic motor skills on the target game, nor in terms of the ability to inhibit a prepotent or ongoing response in the adventure videogame. However, boys with ADHD exhibited more self-talk, more effortful response preparation, and completed fewer challenges in the latter videogame. Also, they manifested inhibition deficits in terms of interference control during the route task at the zoo and took longer to complete the tasks. Typically, these differences were greatest under conditions of high working memory and distractor loads. Findings from this study suggest that cognitive difficulties in ADHD may be context dependent and that ADHD is associated with deficits in some but not all aspects of behavioral inhibition.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Here, we demonstrate that action video game play enhances subjects' ability in two tasks thought to indicate the number of items that can be apprehended. Using an enumeration task, in which participants have to determine the number of quickly flashed squares, accuracy measures showed a near ceiling performance for low numerosities and a sharp drop in performance once a critical number of squares was reached. Importantly, this critical number was higher by about two items in video game players (VGPs) than in non-video game players (NVGPs). A following control study indicated that this improvement was not due to an enhanced ability to instantly apprehend the numerosity of the display, a process known as subitizing, but rather due to an enhancement in the slower more serial process of counting. To confirm that video game play facilitates the processing of multiple objects at once, we compared VGPs and NVGPs on the multiple object tracking task (MOT), which requires the allocation of attention to several items over time. VGPs were able to successfully track approximately two more items than NVGPs. Furthermore, NVGPs trained on an action video game established the causal effect of game playing in the enhanced performance on the two tasks. Together, these studies confirm the view that playing action video games enhances the number of objects that can be apprehended and suggest that this enhancement is mediated by changes in visual short-term memory skills.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The ability to efficiently search the visual environment is a critical function of the visual system, and recent research has shown that experience playing action video games can influence visual selective attention. The present research examined the similarities and differences between video game players (VGPs) and non-video game players (NVGPs) in terms of the ability to inhibit attention from returning to previously attended locations, and the efficiency of visual search in easy and more demanding search environments. Both groups were equally good at inhibiting the return of attention to previously cued locations, although VGPs displayed overall faster reaction times to detect targets. VGPs also showed overall faster response time for easy and difficult visual search tasks compared to NVGPs, largely attributed to faster stimulus-response mapping. The findings suggest that relative to NVGPs, VGPs rely on similar types of visual processing strategies but possess faster stimulus-response mappings in visual attention tasks.
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