Positive Aspects of Video Games:
Gerald Sword, Maike Prudhomme, Rachael Weaver, Jacob Warner
Welcome to Positive Aspects of Video Games!
Over the course of time, video games have grown exponentially in popularity: new games are coming out in overwhelming amounts, along with many different platforms on which these games are played. Since their inception, video games have proven to be a popular means of passing time, and with no surprise, game-playing has become subject to critical analysis by the media, researchers, and parents alike. Many different questions can be posed regarding video games: Is a high level of game-playing problematic? How does playing video games affect a person's overall health and well-being? What do video games have to offer in terms of social and cognitive skills, if anything?
Video games in and of themselves encompass such a breadth of information, and much debate can be made on the topic of video games and their overall effect on a person's well-being. The focus of this website seeks to outline the positive aspects of video games, and how playing video-games increases a person's well-being as a whole. There exists much research on the potentially positive effects that video games offer, and our focus is shifted on revealing some of these effects. We will focus on the benefits that video game playing has on the development of pro-social skills, cognitive health, along with examining how video games are used in a variety of contexts aside from entertainment. Finally, we will take a look at how video games can supplement education and offer an interactive approach to the acquisition of knowledge.
The scope of our tutorial does not aim to discredit the negative effects that may arise from playing video games, but to highlight the potential benefits. A good deal of research shows the various detrimental effects that prolonged and problematic video game playing presents, and discretion must be used when seeking out information that validates only the positive effects of gaming while completely circumventing the potential pitfalls that arise from excessive, problematic game use. The American Psychological Association (APA) and the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) have currently not listed video game addiction as a clinical diagnosis, however there are inevitably two sides to each coin, and no exception is made on the topic of video games. However, we seek to inform the viewer of several important, empirically valid benefits that result from playing video games.
Although certain kinds of video games have been shown to promote aggressive thoughts and behaviors, the same is also true for helping, prosocial behaviors. Video games with prosocial content, that encourage player's to help non-primary characters (NPCs), activate associations people have with prosocial thoughts. This exposure to a certain stimulus influencing a response to a later stimulus is known as the priming effect, and works with player's mental schemas and scripts to influence their responses to situations in which another person is in need of assisstance. Prosocial content works through the cognitive route of the General Learning Model, a proposed model to explain the effects of media content on behavior, and player's mental schemas and scripts to promote prosocial behavior. Following previous research, Greitemeyer and Osswald (2010) found that the GLM teaches the concepts that a person is repeatedly exposed to, and that those concepts depend upon the content of the video game.
Along with the acquisition of various prosocial skills, video games also have been shown to elicit various positive cognitive effects. John
R. Best (2012) suggests that "[even though] there is a growing literature examining the positive effects of video games for cognition and learning, this trend has been largely overshadowed by its negative effects ,notably the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior highlighted by Anderson (2004). However, the positive effects that video games have on human cognition cannot be disputed. Koepp et. al. (1998) conducted research concerning the release of dopamine during video game-play and its influence on the learning process. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that is associated with learning and feelings of reward and pleasure, and when this chemical is released during game play (especially so when progressing through a game successfully and unlocking high achievements), it serves to enhance the ability to learn and encode new information, along with showing improvement to the attention span. Alongside the release of feel-good chemicals, playing video games involves various parts of the brain to work together, which proves to be beneficial in many aspects: critical and deductive thinking, sensory movement and the development of hand-eye coordination, and decision making (Balleine, Delgado, and Hikosaka, 2007)
Some video games have beneficial purposes aside from their entertainment value. This purpose can involve training methods to increase effectiveness in different contexts, or to improve quality of life, for some people and in some therapies, regarding mental and/or physical health. While there are negative risks involved in playing video games, there are also many video games that have been proven to have a positive impact on many individuals in a plethora of scenarios. Simulations are used in the military to train soldiers. "Training for complex tasks and collective operations, use simulation as the primary instructional approach to enhance the application, analysis, and evaluation of facts, concepts, and procedures already acquired by individuals" (Fletcher 2009). Video games that engage the player in various forms of physical activity, or exergaming, have been proven to enhance the mental development of children, and are sure to have a multitude of benefits to offer just about anyone. T. Atilla Ceranoglu from the MA General Hospital has reviewed research pertaining to the positive aspects of video games in mental health therapies. Ceranoglu postulates that video games can be a useful tool in improving and enhancing the results of psychotherapy.
The potential mental and physical health benefits of engaging in video game play can transcend into other aspects of an individual's life such as in their education. With new technology growing every day it is important for teachers and educators alike to explore some new ways to help educate people of all different ages. Right now video games are extremely popular among kids and now more and more educational video games are coming out. If the video game entices the learner they will want to move through the game without external factors forcing them to continue. They will want to continue learning because the game has made it extremely interesting. Video games can be used for a variety of subjects such as math and history. Later on we will discuss the perfect design to make sure that your video game design is successful.
Happy gaming!
Over the course of time, video games have grown exponentially in popularity: new games are coming out in overwhelming amounts, along with many different platforms on which these games are played. Since their inception, video games have proven to be a popular means of passing time, and with no surprise, game-playing has become subject to critical analysis by the media, researchers, and parents alike. Many different questions can be posed regarding video games: Is a high level of game-playing problematic? How does playing video games affect a person's overall health and well-being? What do video games have to offer in terms of social and cognitive skills, if anything?
Video games in and of themselves encompass such a breadth of information, and much debate can be made on the topic of video games and their overall effect on a person's well-being. The focus of this website seeks to outline the positive aspects of video games, and how playing video-games increases a person's well-being as a whole. There exists much research on the potentially positive effects that video games offer, and our focus is shifted on revealing some of these effects. We will focus on the benefits that video game playing has on the development of pro-social skills, cognitive health, along with examining how video games are used in a variety of contexts aside from entertainment. Finally, we will take a look at how video games can supplement education and offer an interactive approach to the acquisition of knowledge.
The scope of our tutorial does not aim to discredit the negative effects that may arise from playing video games, but to highlight the potential benefits. A good deal of research shows the various detrimental effects that prolonged and problematic video game playing presents, and discretion must be used when seeking out information that validates only the positive effects of gaming while completely circumventing the potential pitfalls that arise from excessive, problematic game use. The American Psychological Association (APA) and the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) have currently not listed video game addiction as a clinical diagnosis, however there are inevitably two sides to each coin, and no exception is made on the topic of video games. However, we seek to inform the viewer of several important, empirically valid benefits that result from playing video games.
Although certain kinds of video games have been shown to promote aggressive thoughts and behaviors, the same is also true for helping, prosocial behaviors. Video games with prosocial content, that encourage player's to help non-primary characters (NPCs), activate associations people have with prosocial thoughts. This exposure to a certain stimulus influencing a response to a later stimulus is known as the priming effect, and works with player's mental schemas and scripts to influence their responses to situations in which another person is in need of assisstance. Prosocial content works through the cognitive route of the General Learning Model, a proposed model to explain the effects of media content on behavior, and player's mental schemas and scripts to promote prosocial behavior. Following previous research, Greitemeyer and Osswald (2010) found that the GLM teaches the concepts that a person is repeatedly exposed to, and that those concepts depend upon the content of the video game.
Along with the acquisition of various prosocial skills, video games also have been shown to elicit various positive cognitive effects. John
R. Best (2012) suggests that "[even though] there is a growing literature examining the positive effects of video games for cognition and learning, this trend has been largely overshadowed by its negative effects ,notably the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior highlighted by Anderson (2004). However, the positive effects that video games have on human cognition cannot be disputed. Koepp et. al. (1998) conducted research concerning the release of dopamine during video game-play and its influence on the learning process. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that is associated with learning and feelings of reward and pleasure, and when this chemical is released during game play (especially so when progressing through a game successfully and unlocking high achievements), it serves to enhance the ability to learn and encode new information, along with showing improvement to the attention span. Alongside the release of feel-good chemicals, playing video games involves various parts of the brain to work together, which proves to be beneficial in many aspects: critical and deductive thinking, sensory movement and the development of hand-eye coordination, and decision making (Balleine, Delgado, and Hikosaka, 2007)
Some video games have beneficial purposes aside from their entertainment value. This purpose can involve training methods to increase effectiveness in different contexts, or to improve quality of life, for some people and in some therapies, regarding mental and/or physical health. While there are negative risks involved in playing video games, there are also many video games that have been proven to have a positive impact on many individuals in a plethora of scenarios. Simulations are used in the military to train soldiers. "Training for complex tasks and collective operations, use simulation as the primary instructional approach to enhance the application, analysis, and evaluation of facts, concepts, and procedures already acquired by individuals" (Fletcher 2009). Video games that engage the player in various forms of physical activity, or exergaming, have been proven to enhance the mental development of children, and are sure to have a multitude of benefits to offer just about anyone. T. Atilla Ceranoglu from the MA General Hospital has reviewed research pertaining to the positive aspects of video games in mental health therapies. Ceranoglu postulates that video games can be a useful tool in improving and enhancing the results of psychotherapy.
The potential mental and physical health benefits of engaging in video game play can transcend into other aspects of an individual's life such as in their education. With new technology growing every day it is important for teachers and educators alike to explore some new ways to help educate people of all different ages. Right now video games are extremely popular among kids and now more and more educational video games are coming out. If the video game entices the learner they will want to move through the game without external factors forcing them to continue. They will want to continue learning because the game has made it extremely interesting. Video games can be used for a variety of subjects such as math and history. Later on we will discuss the perfect design to make sure that your video game design is successful.
Happy gaming!