Need to Finish Homework Quick? Warm Up with an Action Game
Need to Finish Homework Quick? Warm Up with an Action Game
December 14, 2009
A Wheaton College psychology professor has released findings from a study which compares how action games versus strategy games impacted a participant’s ability to perform tasks.
As detailed on NewsWise, Rolf Nelson, who specializes in human visual perception, had subjects play either Unreal Tournament (an entry in the action genre) or Portal (a puzzle-solving/strategy game) sandwiched between chores designed to measure speed and accuracy. Those who played the action game were able to perform their task faster, but with less accurate results, while the strategy game induced more accurate, yet slower responses.
Nelson explained how the research might be relevant to real-life, particularly for students:
If they’re playing an action game and then switch to homework, they may try to blaze through their homework at the cost of making mistakes. Or if they play strategy games, they may work slowly, but turn in more accurate work. In fact, it is striking how dramatically these strategies can be shifted by a single hour of video-game play.
Nelson also believes that other studies continued reliance on first-person shooter type game to measure perceptual effects might be off base:
…it is misleading to base conclusions about video games in general on a single genre, just as it would be misleading to base one's conclusions about the effects of television by considering only crime shows.
Full study results are published in the current edition (Volume 38) of the journal Perception. An abstract is available online here.
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Andrew Eisen: Were they ever officially referred to as the Taliban?
Andrew Eisen: Were they ever officially referred to as the Taliban?
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Cheater87: EA might of backed down and censored MOH Taliban no longer called Taliban but "insurgents".
Cheater87: EA might of backed down and censored MOH Taliban no longer called Taliban but "insurgents".
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PHX Corp: even though it's old There is a connection between US v stevens and EMA v California
PHX Corp: even though it's old There is a connection between US v stevens and EMA v California
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Michael Chandra: Same thing as last week or not?
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Michael Chandra: European Parliament has apparently adopted a Written Declaration that objects against the lack of transparancy.
Michael Chandra: European Parliament has apparently adopted a Written Declaration that objects against the lack of transparancy.
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Andrew Eisen: Not much worldwide: Gay, Russia. Gaywood, UK. And again, a stretch, Agay, France.
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Andrew Eisen: Also: Gays Creek, Kentucky. Gay, West Virginia. Gaysville, Vermont. And Gaylordsville, Connecticut.
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Andrew Eisen: In the US: Gay, Georgia. Gays, Illinois. Gayville, South Dakota. Mount Gay-Shamrock, Virginia. Gays Mills, Wisconsin. A bit of a stretch but there are also three cities named Gaylord.
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Rodrigo Ybáñez García: Still, the funny part is when the mayor of the city intervined. How many cities in the world have the word gay?
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: Still, the funny part is when the mayor of the city intervined. How many cities in the world have the word gay?
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Andrew Eisen: But, according to the article, the suspension was eventually revoked.
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pete_gallagher: @PHX Corp, sorry to hear that, condolences :(
pete_gallagher: @PHX Corp, sorry to hear that, condolences :(
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PHX Corp: My Dog, sparky Just Passed away as of 12mid, of old age.
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PHX Corp: @cheater I took it to the back so everyone can point and laugh at his team rocket style quest(Which fails Often)
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Andrew Eisen: I disagree that it's sexist. I think she's reading a bit too much into it. That said, while the story in and of itself is fine, even good, the writing is atrocious.
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Comments
I love this article because this is the college I am currently attending. I was hoping this would end up here. I have heard about Nelson's research and the coauthor, Ian, has been good friend of mine since my freshman year. I am so glad this paper got published because it is great to see something that looks at the effects of videogames in a political vacuum. I am curious what other games would do in terms of effects. Unreal Tournament and Portal are both FPS. What if they tried a more intense strategy game like the Total War Series or Civilization IV? Then again there could also be problems of finding people who dont just have issues with those types of games and lack the patience or temperament to enjoy them.
I would have thought the Total War and Civ series would support the "slow and methodical" approach. After all, it's hard to imagine a strategy game more about slow and methodical than Civ! It can take hours before you even realise your new city wasn't placed in the smartest of areas!
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
I have an even better homework strategy: Take that hour you were going to spend playing an action or strategy game, and use it to do your homework.
I think you're missing the point....
It isnt just homework that is affected. Next time you have an exam, play a few rounds of Starcraft before you leave for it.
Or maybe study a bit more?
I'll have to take a look at that study when I get home from work.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
This looks to be a very well thought out study. The games they picked were really good for this. In UT you always have to be running around and in the action, in Portal you always have to solve puzzles.
If they picked something like Call of Duty the gameplay would vary too much. Sometimes you're sneaking around being patient and precise and other times you're running and gunning relying on quick reflexes and instinct.
http://www.eliteownage.com/nice
Anything that helps stimulate the mind will automaticly help you if what you need to do next requires extreme thought. I also reccomend a quick round of Tetris.
I actually giggled reading the first couple lines of this. I'm a Wheaton graduate and Prof. Nelson's classes were excellent. He's a very intelligent guy, I've been waiting to hear more about his research on this topic for some time. It certainly does raise some interesting questions about the varying effects of different game genres. Performing different kinds of tasks engage different parts of our mind, so it stands to reason different games do as well.