Video Game helps Scientists ^_^

[LoneMateria]

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/02/aaas-60tb-of-behavioral-data-the-everquest-2-server-logs.ars

I'm not exactly sure how to feel about this article.  On the one hand no one can ever say now that video games have not benefited humanity.  And on the other hand wouldn't this be an invasion of privacy.  To sum up the article Sony has given scientists the entire game log of Everquest ... all 60TB of it.  Scientists are pouring over the log to observe social behavior that would otherwise be difficult to track.  I'm sure Sony is allowed to give them any information they want (per the mostly ignored user agreement) however could this be considered an invasion of privacy?

Also I'd be interested in what the scientists find data-wise.

[karadan]

Interesting..

I now have ammunition for when my sister tells her husband he isn't allowed to stay online for more than 20 minutes with me when we quite plainly have to be available for two hours to help defend the corp starbase in Eve online. Her irrational hatred for my brother-in-law's MMO gaming is just that - completely irrational. And now i can add hypocritical to the list as well, seeing as she watches more TV by average time [strike:1zqr0457]wasted[/strike:1zqr0457] entertained.

I guess studies like these will help further dispell many of the ridiculous myths surrounding the MMO culture. I think online games have huge social potential.

I don't think it is a breach of privacy as long as the data is only used for scientific study.

Cool article though.  

[curiosityandthecat]

Ahem...

Basak, C., Boot, W. R., Voss, M. W., & Kramer, A. F. (2008). Can Training in a Real-Time Strategy Video Game Attenuate Cognitive Decline in Older Adults? Psychology & Aging, 23(4), 765-777. doi:10.1037/a0013494

Declines in various cognitive abilities, particularly executive control functions, are observed in older adults. An important goal of cognitive training is to slow or reverse these age-related declines. However, opinion is divided in the literature regarding whether cognitive training can engender transfer to a variety of cognitive skills in older adults. In the current study, the authors trained older adults in a real-time strategy video game for 23.5 hr in an effort to improve their executive functions. A battery of cognitive tasks, including tasks of executive control and visuospatial skills, were assessed before, during, and after video-game training. The trainees improved significantly in the measures of game performance. They also improved significantly more than the control participants in executive control functions, such as task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, and reasoning. Individual differences in changes in game performance were correlated with improvements in task switching. The study has implications for the enhancement of executive control processes of older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boot, W. (2007). The effects of video game playing on perceptual and cognitive abilities. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Recent research has found that just ten hours of action video game playing can improve performance on a variety of visual and attentional abilities. These results counter the long supported notion that transfer of training is limited to tasks either identical or very similar to the trained task. The current study sought to replicate and extend these results. Participants were trained on one of three types of video game (an action game, strategy game, or puzzle game) and cognitive and perceptual abilities were tested before, during, and after training. It was expected for each game to improve a subset of abilities relevant to game play. Contrary to recent video game work, but consistent with the learning and training literature, little or no transfer of training was observed despite the current study featuring double the number of participants and double the number of training hours. These results suggest that findings of broad transfer from video games to perceptual and cognitive abilities are not robust and may be more specific than previously thought. Methodological differences that might have resulted in a failure to replicate previous video game work are discussed, but if these methodological differences are the cause they only underscore the specificity of previous training effects. However, the current results do not rule out that under the right conditions video game based training interventions might be an effective and enjoyable way to improve perceptual and cognitive abilities. Future directions are discussed.

Boot, W. R., Kramer, A. F., Simons, D. J., Fabiani, M., & Gratton, G. (2008). The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychologica, 129(3), 387-398. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.09.005

Expert video game players often outperform non-players on measures of basic attention and performance. Such differences might result from exposure to video games or they might reflect other group differences between those people who do or do not play video games. Recent research has suggested a causal relationship between playing action video games and improvements in a variety of visual and attentional skills (e.g., [Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2003). Action video game modifies visual selective attention. Nature, 423, 534â€"537]). The current research sought to replicate and extend these results by examining both expert/non-gamer differences and the effects of video game playing on tasks tapping a wider range of cognitive abilities, including attention, memory, and executive control. Non-gamers played 20+ h of an action video game, a puzzle game, or a real-time strategy game. Expert gamers and non-gamers differed on a number of basic cognitive skills: experts could track objects moving at greater speeds, better detected changes to objects stored in visual short-term memory, switched more quickly from one task to another, and mentally rotated objects more efficiently. Strikingly, extensive video game practice did not substantially enhance performance for non-gamers on most cognitive tasks, although they did improve somewhat in mental rotation performance. Our results suggest that at least some differences between video game experts and non-gamers in basic cognitive performance result either from far more extensive video game experience or from pre-existing group differences in abilities that result in a self-selection effect. [Copyright 2008 Elsevier]

Daley, A. J. (2009). Can Exergaming Contribute to Improving Physical Activity Levels and Health Outcomes in Children? Pediatrics, 124(2), 763-771. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2357

Physical inactivity among children is a serious public health problem. It has been suggested that high levels of screen time are contributory factors that encourage sedentary lifestyles in young people. As physical inactivity and obesity levels continue to rise in young people, it has been proposed that new-generation active computer- and video-console games (otherwise known as "exergaming") may offer the opportunity to contribute to young people's energy expenditure during their free time. Although studies have produced some encouraging results regarding the energy costs involved in playing active video-console games, the energy costs of playing the authentic versions of activity-based video games are substantially larger, highlighting that active gaming is no substitute for real sports and activities. A small number of exergaming activities engage children in moderate-intensity activity, but most do not. Only 3 very small trials have considered the effects of exergaming on physical activity levels and/or other health outcomes in children. Evidence from these trials has been mixed; positive trends for improvements in some health outcomes in the intervention groups were noted in 2 trials. No adequately powered randomized, controlled trial has been published to date, and no trial has assessed the long-term impact of exergaming on children's health. We now need high-quality randomized, controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of exergaming, as well as its clinical relevance; until such studies take place, we should remain cautious about its ability to positively affect children's health.

Dye, M. W. (2009). Increasing Speed of Processing With Action Video Games. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(6), 321-326. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01660.x

In many everyday situations, speed is of the essence. However, fast decisions typically mean more mistakes. To this day, it remains unknown whether reaction times can be reduced with appropriate training, within one individual, across a range of tasks, and without compromising accuracy. Here we review evidence that the very act of playing action video games significantly reduces reaction times without sacrificing accuracy. Critically, this increase in speed is observed across various tasks beyond game situations. Video gaming may therefore provide an efficient training regimen to induce a general speeding of perceptual reaction times without decreases in accuracy of performance.

Graf, D. L., Pratt, L. V., Hester, C. N., & Short, K. R. (2009). Playing Active Video Games Increases Energy Expenditure in Children. Pediatrics, 124(2), 534-540. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2851

OBJECTIVE: To compare energy expenditure rates in children playing the physically active video games, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and Nintendo's Wii Sports in relation to treadmill walking. METHODS: Energy expenditure, heart rate, step rate, and perceived exertion were measured in 14 boys and 9 girls (ages 10-13 years; BMI at 3-98th percentile for age and gender) while watching television at rest, playing DDR at 2 skill levels, playing Wii bowling and boxing, and walking at 2.6, 4.2, and 5.7 km/h. Arterial elasticity was measured at rest and immediately after gaming. RESULTS: Compared with watching television, energy expenditure while gaming or walking increased 2- to 3-fold. Similarly, high rates of energy expenditure, heart rate, and perceived exertion were elicited from playing Wii boxing, DDR level 2, or walking at 5.7 km/h. This occurred despite variations in step rate among activities, reflecting greater use of upper body during Wii play (lowest step rate) than during walking (highest step rate) or DDR play. Wii bowling and beginner level DDR elicited a 2-fold increase in energy expenditure compared to television watching. Large-artery elasticity declined immediately after both DDR and Wii. The change was inversely related to the increment in energy expenditure above rest achieved during the activity. CONCLUSIONS: Energy expenditure during active video game play is comparable to moderate-intensity walking. Thus, for children who spend considerable time playing electronic screen games for entertainment, physically active games seem to be a safe, fun, and valuable means of promoting energy expenditure.

Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2006). Enumeration versus multiple object tracking: the case of action video game players. Cognition, 101(1), 217-245. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2005.10.004

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.

Hamlen, K. R. (2009). Relationships between Computer and Video Game Play and Creativity among Upper Elementary School Students. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 40(1), 1-21. doi:10.2190/EC.40.1.a

This study explored relationships between time spent playing video games in a typical week and general creativity, as measured by a common assessment. One hundred eighteen students in 4th and 5th grades answered questions about their video game play and completed the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, Orlow, & Safter, 1990). While significant relationships were found between creativity and two variables (gender and grade), no significant relationship was found between time spent playing video games in a typical week and creativity, when controlling for gender and grade. Additional analyses examined relationships of creativity with skills used in video games and context in which the games were typically played and these also did not reveal significant relationships. This study provides initial evidence that video game play may not, in fact, influence children's general creativity levels.

Quiroga, M. A., Herranz, M., Gomez-Abad, M., Ruiz, J., & Colom, R. (2009). Video-games: Do they require general intelligence? Computers & Education, 53(2), 414-418. doi:10:1016/j.compedu.20090.02.017

Here we test if playing video-games require intelligence. Twenty-seven university undergraduate students were trained on three games from Big Brain Academy (Wii): Calculus, Backward Memory and Train. Participants did not have any previous experience with these games. General intelligence was measured by five ability tests before the training session. Training comprised 10 blocks of trials (10 trials per block). Ackerman’s (Ackerman, P. L. (1988). Individual differences and skill acquisition. In P. L. Ackerman, R. J. Sernberg, & R. Glaser (Eds.), Learning and individual differences: Advances in theory and practice (pp. 165â€"217). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company) theory of skill learning was used as a framework for the present study. Results show that playing the Train game increases the correlation with general intelligence across blocks of trials. This is not the case for Calculus and Backward Memory. These findings suggest strategies for designing video-games presumably appropriate to stimulate our core cognitive abilities.

   (It's my field of doctoral study.)

[karadan]

Haha Curio, superb amount of data.

[theTwiz]

On the invasion of privacy comment:

I would personally place the determination on privacy invasion on whether or not the data could be reconstructed to identify the patterns or behaviors of a specific individual.  In other words, if the data contained usernames, IP addresses, or any unique identifier that could be used to trace the data back to a specific person, then yes it would be invasion of privacy. However, if they took each unique identifier, ran it through an algorithm to produce a new unique identifier, then shredded the algorithm (or used random variables), the data couldn't be traced back to a specific person.  IMO, this wouldn't be invasion of privacy.  I do not know what they did with the data prior to sending it off for science, though.

I didn't read Curio's giant wall of eye-raping text so sorry if this was covered.

P.S. what I was talking about above is similar to one of the propositions made when and Viacom were initially in dispute over Youtube stuff, and Viacom wanted youtube data or whatever.