Some recent press coverage from the APA convention in Boston related to video game effects. Nothing new, but an interesting read perhaps. Full article can be found here.
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Parents, don't put away those video games just yet -- today's gamer may be tomorrow's top surgeon.
Researchers who gathered in Boston for the American Psychological Association convention detailed a series of studies suggesting video games can be powerful learning tools -- from increasing younger students' problem-solving potential to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons.
One study even looked at whether playing "World of Warcraft," the world's biggest multiplayer online game, can improve scientific thinking.
The conclusion? Certain types of video games can have benefits beyond the virtual thrills of blowing up demons.
In one Fordham University study, 122 students in fifth, sixth and seventh grades were asked to think out loud for 20 minutes while playing a game they had never seen before. Researchers studied the children's statements to see if playing the game improved cognitive and perceptual skills.
While older children seemed more interested in just playing the game, younger children showed more interest in setting up a series of short-term goals needed to help them learn the game.
"The younger kids are focusing more on their planning and problem solving while they are actually playing the game, while adolescents are focusing less on their planning and strategizing and more on the here and now," said Fordham psychologist Fran Blumberg, who conducted the research last year and plans to submit it for publication. "They're thinking less strategically than the younger kids."
Studies by Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile and Dr. James Rosser, head of minimally invasive surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, compared surgeons who play video games to those who don't.
The edge went to gamer surgeons, they found, even after taking into account differences in age, years of medical training and the number of laparoscopic surgeries performed. In laparoscopic procedures, surgeons use small incisions, thin surgical tools and video cameras to see inside the body.
One study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than those who didn't.
Advanced video game skills also were a good way to predict suturing abilities, according to their study, which was published in the Archives of Surgery in 2007.
Research Gentile and Rosser conducted for a second as yet unpublished study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons found those who played video games requiring spacial skills and hand dexterity performed better at those skills when tested later compared to surgeons who didn't play videos, Gentile said.
"The single best predictor of their skills is how much they had played video games in the past and how much they played now. Those were better predictors of surgical skills than years of training and number of surgeries performed," Gentile said. "So the first question you might ask your surgeon is how many of these (surgeries) have you done and the second question is 'Are you a gamer?"'
Some videos games even appear to sharpen scientific thinking skills.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison looked at a random sample of 2,000 chat room posts about "World of Warcraft" to see what the players were discussing. The game is set in a fantasy world where players hunt, gather and battle to move their characters to higher levels. Players who work together succeed faster.
The research found the game encouraged scientific thinking, like using systems and models for understanding situations and using math and testing to investigate problems.
The vast majority of the discussion participants, 86 percent, shared knowledge to solve problems and more than half, 58 percent, used systematic and evaluative processes, researchers found.
The forums show that gamers are "creating an environment in which informal scientific reasoning practices are being learned," said Sean Duncan, a doctoral student who worked on the "World of Warcraft" report with lead author Constance Steinkuehler. The paper is set for publication in the Journal of Science Education and Technology.
The news wasn't all good.
Other studies confirmed earlier research that found students who played violent games tended to be more hostile, less forgiving and believed violence to be normal compared to those who played nonviolent games. And those who played more entertainment games did poorer in school and were are greater risk of obesity.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Video Games Help Kids Learn (from CNN.com)
Coming soon...more blog action
Bloggers,
As we all emerge from our Summer hiatus, be looking for some more discussions here shortly. Already some of the crew here @ MSU have been busy on publications and projects this summer and we have a lot of questions for our fellow bloggers. We're likely going to be organizing a posting schedule for some of the more regular contributors, so if you'd like to be on the schedule hit me back at bowmann5@msu.edu. Otherwise, check back early and often for more updates as Fall semester gets underway!
~Nick
Sunday, August 10, 2008
AEJMC Mid-Winter Conference
Hey guys,
In case you haven't heard, the Entertainment Studies Interest Group of AEJMC participates in the Mid-Winter conference, usually in late-February/early-March. Although the details have not be finalized for this year's conference, information from last year tells me that they will be looking for 300- to 500-word abstracts to be submitted no later than early- to mid-December, with the expecation that full manuscripts will be drafted before the conference starts. This could be a very fruitful output for some of your research, and I would encourage you to submit when information is available. I will post updates about the conference as it comes available. Fun?
Monday, August 4, 2008
Don't quit your day job?
Yet more proof that academics are truly rock stars:
Guitar geek: Queen's May publishes astrophysics thesis
by Space.com staff
The founder of the legendary rock band Queen has completed his doctoral thesis in astrophysics after taking a 30-year break to play some guitar.
Brian May's thesis examines the mysterious phenomenon known as Zodiacal light, a misty diffuse cone of light that appears in the western sky after sunset and in the eastern sky before sunrise...
Casual observers, if they live under very dark rural skies, can best see the light two to three hours before sunrise as they look east, and many people have been fooled into seeing it as the first sign of morning twilight. A Persian astronomer who lived around the 12th century referred to it as "false dawn" in a poem.
Astronomers now know that Zodiacal light represents reflected sunlight shining on scattered space debris clustered most densely near the sun. The millions of particles range in size from tiny asteroids to microscopic dust grains, and extend outward beyond the orbit of Mars.
May's work focuses on an instrument that recorded 250 scans of morning and evening Zodiacal light between 1971 and 1972. The Fabry-Perot Spectrometer is located at the Observatorio del Teide at Izana in Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands.
The completed thesis appears as the book A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud (Springer and Canopus Publishing Ltd., 2008).
"I have thoroughly enjoyed my years playing guitar and recording music with Queen, but it's extremely gratifying to see the publication of my thesis," May said. "I've been fascinated with astronomy for years, and I was happy to finally complete my Ph.D. last year and record my studies of the Zodiacal Light in this book."
May officially received his doctorate on Aug. 24, 2007, from the Imperial College in London. He also gained the appointment of chancellor for Liverpool John Moores University in November of that year, showing that he's not just any guitar hero.
Copyright 2007, SPACE.com Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Anyone going to AEJMC this week?
Curious, a few of us from Michigan State (Allison, myself, and possibly Andy) are heading to Chicago this Thursday to attend the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference in Chicago. More information here. If you're planning to be in the area, you should contact us? I can be reached at bowmann5@msu.edu. Hope to see y'all there? We'll likely post a slew of questions and comments based on what we see at AEJMC when we return. Fun!
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