Training cognition with video games

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Cardoso-Leite ◽  
Morteza Ansarinia ◽  
Emmanuel Schmück ◽  
Daphne Bavelier
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Simulation Games ◽  
Impact Action ◽  
Systematic Assessment ◽  
Game Mechanics ◽  
Third Person ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
New Research

This chapter reviews the behavioral and neuroimaging scientific literature on the cognitive consequences of playing various genres of video games. The available research highlights that not all video games have similar cognitive impact; action video games as defined by first- and third-person shooter games have been associated with greater cognitive enhancement, especially when it comes to top-down attention, than puzzle or life-simulation games. This state of affairs suggests specific game mechanics need to be embodied in a video game for it to enhance cognition. These hypothesized game mechanics are reviewed; yet, the authors note that the advent of more complex, hybrid, video games poses new research challenges and call for a more systematic assessment of how specific video game mechanics relate to cognitive enhancement.

scholarly journals Short-Term Effects of Video-Games on Cognitive Enhancement: the Role of Positive Emotions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandro Franceschini ◽  
Sara Bertoni ◽  
Matteo Lulli ◽  
Telmo Pievani ◽  
Andrea Facoetti
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Visual Perception ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Short Term Effects

AbstractAccording to established background knowledge, playing is essential in human development and a power remediation tool in clinical populations. In clinical interventions, the beneficial roles of playing have often been sought and investigated in the specific features of the game, rather than in the positive emotions generated by playing. However, regardless of game specifications, cognitive enhancement could be driven by the emotions linked to play. Establishing the causal connections between play and cognitive enhancement should allow us to determine how to involve play in therapy, prevention and educational programmes. Today, video-gaming is one of the most diffused forms of play. In the first crossover randomized controlled trial, we compared the short-term effects induced by shooting and puzzle video-games in visual perception, sensorimotor and reading skills in children with developmental coordination disorder and dyslexia. The funnier and more activating game enhanced breadth of visual perception and reduced sensorimotor and reading disorders. Visual perception, sensorimotor and reading improvements correlated with fun. In the second crossover randomized controlled trial, comparing the effects of the same shooting with a fighting video-game in healthy young adults, we show that regardless of game characteristics, changes in positive emotions correlated with contextual reading enhancement, while play-driven biochemical activation boosted single word and pseudoword reading. The short-term effects induced by play could be a useful clinical tool for the prevention and treatment of multiple cognitive disorders.

Toward Broader Definitions of “Video Games”

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas John Jensen ◽  
Daisyane Barreto ◽  
Keri Duncan Valentine
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Technological Capabilities ◽  
Game Mechanics ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Digital Environments

As video games grow in popularity, ambition, scope, and technological prowess, they also mature as an art form, shedding old definitions tethered to video games as simple, competitive exercises. Greater technological capabilities, in addition to years of experimentation and maturation, have expanded the ability of games to tell different kinds of stories, offering branching paths. The question of “what makes a game a game?” looms larger than ever in this era of video game storytelling. As plots and characters grow, branch, and develop, so, too, do the boundaries of what a game actually is. In traditional definitions of gaming, a set of rules and a victory condition were essential elements to a game. As game narratives and game mechanics grow in increasingly complex and experimental directions, new player goals have emerged. Now, gamers socialize, customize, nurture, kill, build, destroy, break, glitch, and explore as much as they work to win and accrue points. This chapter surveys the current landscape of video games, highlighting examples and trends that challenge more traditional notions and definitions of what it means to be a “video game.” The broader definition presented here takes into account play, narrative, digital environments, and more, acknowledging the expanse of the video game experience.

Cute, cuddly and completely crushable: Plushies as avatars in video games

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Reay
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Game Mechanics

This article examines video game avatars that are designed to resemble toys. It names this trope the ‘Blithe Child’ to capture the carefree, careless and childlike interactions this avatar invites. This article argues that the connection between the Blithe Child and traditional toys functions to express and explain non-violent game mechanics, to shape sentimental player–avatar relationships, to create cosy, snug playspaces and to encourage pro-social, creative and self-expressive playstyles. However, the Blithe Child inherits some of the more sinister dynamics latent in human–toy relationships, namely the desire to humiliate and mutilate the cute object and anxieties about what it means to be ‘real’ – to be an independent, agential subject rather than a passive, manipulated, othered object. Drawing on theories derived from cuteness studies and toy studies, this article uses a close reading approach to critique the age-based hierarchies that underpin this trope.

Transnational Politics in Video Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-129
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Military Intervention ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Transnational Politics ◽  
Procedural Rhetoric ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Cultural Status ◽  
International Audience ◽  
Game Industry

Political claims about the real world are abundant in video games, and the medium persuades uniquely through procedural rhetoric, the rules of behavior contained in computational code. The transnational scope of the video game industry makes it productive ground for interrogating how a game’s persuasion might influence international audiences with nationally situated politics. The 2012 third-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line, produced by the German studio Yager Development, depicts the international concern of a fictional conflict in the Middle East and the atrocities of failed military intervention. The game’s core procedural rhetoric, which tasks players to push ahead at all costs, cautions an international audience about the futility of deploying military power abroad, a warning that mirrors particularly German political anxieties. The game’s depiction of extreme violence—and the player’s participation in it—raises further questions about the cultural status of the medium in the country and abroad.

scholarly journals Commercial video games and cognitive functions: video game genres and modulating factors of cognitive enhancement

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunhye Choi ◽  
Suk-Ho Shin ◽  
Jeh-Kwang Ryu ◽  
Kyu-In Jung ◽  
Shin-Young Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement

scholarly journals Unifying Rigid and Soft Bodies Representation: The Sulfur Physics Engine

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Maggiorini ◽  
Laura Anna Ripamonti ◽  
Federico Sauro
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Game Engine ◽  
Unified Approach ◽  
Game Mechanics ◽  
Physics Simulation ◽  
Game Engines ◽  
Player Experience ◽  
Game Environment

Video games are (also) real-time interactive graphic simulations: hence, providing a convincing physics simulation for each specific game environment is of paramount importance in the process of achieving a satisfying player experience. While the existing game engines appropriately address many aspects of physics simulation, some others are still in need of improvements. In particular, several specific physics properties of bodies not usually involved in the main game mechanics (e.g., properties useful to represent systems composed by soft bodies), are often poorly rendered by general-purpose engines. This issue may limit game designers when imagining innovative and compelling video games and game mechanics. For this reason, we dug into the problem of appropriately representing soft bodies. Subsequently, we have extended the approach developed for soft bodies to rigid ones, proposing and developing a unified approach in a game engine: Sulfur. To test the engine, we have also designed and developed “Escape from Quaoar,” a prototypal video game whose main game mechanic exploits an elastic rope, and a level editor for the game.

scholarly journals The use of shape and color theory in interpreting character traits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Curtis Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Interactive Engagement ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
Full Color ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Character Design ◽  
Color Spectrum ◽  
New Research

Video games are richly ingrained in the world's media culture. Video games are rapidly growing their audience reach through new technological advances and innovative interactive engagement. Characters that create powerful social and emotional connections with players throughout the gameplay are essential for a video game's success. However, character design and interaction principles do not seem to be widely understood within the game development community. This paper analyzes the theory of how people perceive shape and color and then applies these beliefs to personally designed characters that I created. When speaking of shape, I am referring to the actual geometric dimensionality of an object, such as a circle, square, or triangle. When speaking of color, I am referring to the full-color spectrum in an artist's palette, such as blue, indigo, and violet, etc. This study reports the findings of previous research concerning video game character design. It then provides a new research plan for a qualitative study to attempt to design characters that evoke intended emotions with their audience. It also presents a full questionnaire with new unique character designs that will be distributed to the public in the future. The overall goal of this research is to build a better picture of what character designers should include to resonate with their intended audience successfully.

scholarly journals Genres matter: Video games as predictors of physical aggression among adolescents

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-129
Author(s):  
Anne Dickmeis ◽  
Keith Roe
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Interaction Effect ◽  
Physical Aggression ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Simulation Games ◽  
General Aggression Model ◽  
Competition Hypothesis ◽  
N 93 ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The purpose of this article is to investigate whether competition hypothesis (Anderson and Carnagey, 2009) contributes to the General Aggression Model when video game genre is entered into the relationship between video game use and self-reported physical aggression. A pre-test (n=93) taken randomly from the research sample employed categorized the game genres as violent and/or competitive. 1,170 adolescents (ages 12–18) completed the written survey. Online shooter games and fight’em up games, categorized as both violent and competitive, were positively related to self-reported physical aggression, while simulation games manifested a negative relationship. Video game genres such as strategy, sports, offline shooter, racing, adventure, puzzle, and platform games were not significantly related to physical aggression. The results support the hypothesis that the presence of both competition and violence in games increases the probability of physical aggression. This study shows that (1) video game genres can be used to predict physical aggression in a non-causal way and (2) that there is support for an interaction effect of the competition hypothesis and the violence hypothesis.

Repetition and Ritual Logic in Video Games

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 499-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Gazzard ◽  
Alan Peacock
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
Game Play ◽  
The Real ◽  
Third Person

By moving away from a model of ritual that focuses on magic and fantasy worlds, this article seeks to broaden the discussion of ritual actions, performances, and objects in first- and third-person video games. Ritual will be understood through the idea of a “ritual logic” that enables the wider associations of ritual in the virtual as opposed to the real world to be analyzed, and through the key element of repetition in game play. In part derived from the intertextuality of video game genres and associated popular culture artifacts such as films and novels, ritual logic contributes to the players’ knowledge and understanding of what ritual is and what ritual does in the game, and how ritual can be used to progress its narrative and play trajectories.

Norms governing the localization of video games

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Sharifi
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Art Design ◽  
Local Use

Garshasp: Temple of the Dragon (2012) is a 3D, 3rd person action-adventure hack ‘n’ slash indie game developed by Dead Mage for English gamers and Fanafzar Sharif for local use. It was one of the early Persian forerunners to be majorly localized and distributed throughout the English community. It takes a mythology that westerners are probably not familiar with and presents it in a third person action setting that most audiences can understand (MetaCritic 2012). This and more is what Garshasp offers from its home country demonstrated through its lovely art design, pompous music, and a great narrator (GameSpot 2012). The present research investigates the norms governing the ‘language’ of Garshasp: Temple of the Dragon; a prequel to its 2011 Garshasp: The Monster Slayer. Toury (1978/2000) proposed various categories of norms among which ‘initial norms’ is our concern. These norms represents the side translators subject themselves to; source (adequacy) or target (acceptability). In other words, the initial norm refers to “the translator’s (conscious or unconscious) choice as to the main objective of his translation, the objective which governs all decisions made during the translation process” (van Leuven- Zwart 1989, 154). Van Leuven-Zwart (1989) also contents that, as is the case with most other norms, the initial norm is not directly observable, but may be inferred by identifying the shifts contained in target text. Using Toury’s categorization (1978/2000) and a modified Vinay and Darbelnet’s model (1958/1995), we found that the language of the video game under study tends to be more acceptable than adequate.

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