Background: Video games have become extensively integrated into popular culture. Anecdotal observations of young surgeons suggest that video game play contributes to performance excellence in laparoscopic surgery. Training benefits for surgeons who play video games should be quantifiable. Hypothesis: There is a potential link between video game play and laparoscopic surgical skill and suturing. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of the performance of surgical residents and attending physicians participating in the Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program (Top Gun). Three different video game exercises were performed, and surveys were completed to assess past experience with video games and current level of play, and each subject's level of surgical training, number of laparoscopic cases performed, and number of years in medical practice. Setting: Academic medical center and surgical training program. Participants: Thirty-three residents and attending physicians participating in Top Gun from May 10 to August 24, 2002. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measures were compared between participants' laparoscopic skills and suturing capability, video game scores, and video game experience. Results: Past video game play in excess of 3 h/wk correlated with 37% fewer errors (P < .02) and 27% faster completion (P < .03). Overall Top Gun score (time and errors) was 33% better (P < .005) for video game players and 42% better (P <. 0 1) if they played more than 3 h/wk. Current video game players made 32% fewer errors (P = .04), performed 24% faster (P < .04), and scored 26% better overall (time and errors) (P < .005) than their non-playing colleagues. When comparing demonstrated video gaming skills, those in the top tertile made 47% fewer errors, performed 39% faster, and scored 41% better (P < .001 for all) on the overall Top Gun score. Regression analysis also indicated that video game skill and past video game experience are significant predictors of demonstrated laparoscopic skills. Conclusions: Video game skill correlates with laparoscopic surgical skills. Training curricula that include video games may help thin the technical interface between surgeons and screen-mediated applications, such as laparoscopic surgery. Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons. Read more...

Recent acts of extreme violence involving teens and associated links to violent video games have led to an increased interest in video game violence. Research suggests that violent video games influence aggressive behavior, aggressive affect, aggressive cognition, and physiological arousal. Anderson and Bushman have posited a General Aggression Model (GAM) to explain the mechanism behind the link between violent video games and aggressive behavior. However, the influence of violent video games as a function of developmental changes across adolescence has yet to be addressed. The purpose of this review is to integrate the GAM with developmental changes that occur across adolescence. Read more...

This study investigated the effects of violent video game play and trait hostility on attentional bias toward negatively valenced words. Following video game play, participants completed an emotional Stroop task. Results indicated greater Stroop interference for participants high in trait hostility and for participants playing violent video games. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to current models of aggressive behavior. Read more...

One of the main concerns that has constantly been raised against video games is that most of the games feature aggressive elements. This has led many people to assert that this may have a detrimental effect on individuals who play such games. Despite continuing controversy for over 15 years, there has been little in the way of systematic research. This article reviews the empirical studies in this area, including research methodologies such as the observation of free play, self-report methods, and experimental studies. The article argues that all the published studies on video game violence have methodological problems and that they only include possible short-term measures of aggressive consequences. The one consistent finding is that the majority of the studies on very young children-as opposed to those in their teens upwards-tend to show that children do became more aggressive after either playing or watching a violent video game. However, all of these come from the use of one particular research methodology (i.e., observation of children's free play). Read more...

Ample evidence exists suggesting that exposure to television and film violence (Paik & Comstock, 1994) and playing with violent video games (Sherry, 2001) contribute to increases in aggressive behavior; however, the magnitude of the effect ranges from small to moderate. In this study, we argue that in some cases, use of trait, rather than state, aggression can serve to attenuate effects. We report the results of a study in which a trait aggression scale is reworded slightly to create a state measure. The state and trait scales are then compared in high- and low-aggression priming conditions. Results suggest that though both scales are reliable and both have construct validity, the reworded state aggression scale responds more to the high prime than to the low prime. More important, it also responds more than the original trait scale does. Therefore, minor variations in studies of media's effect on aggression, such as variations in scale wording, can serve to attenuate effects. Read more...