Status and directions of psychological research on video games in 2009 (Tang, 2009)

Since the National Institute of Media and Family is closing its doors this year and with no indications that they are publishing their video game report card (and their overview of the research), I decided to take the (lazy, but I’m still busy) task of giving this year’s overview of the research.

This year, I got about 100 academic articles related to psychological video game research (including studies in communication studies).

Aggression: Research continued to demonstrate the correlational and experimental link between video game violence and aggression. However, the research is still criticized by its methodological flaws (e.g. by Christopher Ferguson and the Olson-Kutner duo). Some future directions might include looking media violence in its context, realism violence, personality, etc.

On the other hand, this year presented a new trend in research investigating the prosocial aspects and effects of video games. Quite notably is Douglas Gentile’s Prosocial study. Another study was also published in the same year without much press (and I promised to write about it).

Sex: I foresee in the near future increasing research on sex in video games. There are multiple topics related to sex: masculinity and femininity among video game players, sexual depictions in video games, attitudes towards sexual orientations in online gaming environment, effects of hyper-sexualized female and male characters, differential attitudes of sexual depictions between various medium (tv, advertisement, video game, films, etc.), cultural differences attitudes towards sexual depiction or sexual behaviours in media and video games, dealing with mature themes in video games, to list a few at the top of my head.

Addiction: Video game addiction research is a pressing issue among mental health professionals and gamers alike and we will likely to see more for at least several years to come. I’d like to give a general overview of the research, but I’m not up-to-date.

Ethnicity:  Ethnic representations among video game characters, effects on players and audience by video game characters of ethnic minority, attitudes towards minorities in online video gaming…

Motivation: I get to know about obssessive versus harmonious passion…

Health: Wii sports is better than Wii fit.

That is all.

Differing video game structural characteristics prime different speed/accuracy tradeoffs (Nelson & Strachan, 2009)

I'm not getting much sleep as Harumi Kiyama (A Certain Scientific Railgun)

I’m not getting a lot of free time from my part-time turned full-time job. Piles of unopened google alerts awaits me, news on video game research are cropping up, and unpaid bills. Besides that, my dad has given me a catch-22 about financing my graduate studies. He wouldn’t support me nor send a bank statement, if I’m not offered admission and I wouldn’t get my visa if I don’t send them my financial statements (that’s for three schools). I want a break…

A study from the journal Perception was reported from Newswise (and later reported by gamepolitics and again) about how different types of video games can prime different cognitive strategies that affect performance in certain perceptual and cognitive tasks.

Abstract

To understand the way in which video-game play affects subsequent perception and cognitive strategy, two experiments were performed in which participants played either a fast- action game or a puzzle-solving game. Before and after video-game play, participants performed a task in which both speed and accuracy were emphasized. In experiment 1 participants  engaged in a location task in which they clicked a mouse on the spot where a target had appeared, and in experiment 2 they were asked to judge which of four shapes was most similar to a target shape. In both experiments, participants were much faster but less accurate after playing the action game, while they were slower but more accurate after playing the puzzle game. Results are discussed in terms of a taxonomy of video games by their cognitive and perceptual demands.

I’m feeling mushy recently, like I’m having comprehension difficulties in conversation and reading. I hope it’s the sleep deprivation.

The Psychology of Video Games blog (Madigan, 2009)

I haven’t had time to write anything or actually do anything since I started working at a new coffeeshop kiosk, which is in the middle of an airport’s international departure area. We’re in a constant rush from afternoon well into the evening.

I stumbled upon a blog on the psychology of video games, it’s written by Jamie Madigan who has a Ph.D in organizational psychology (University of Missouri St. Louis). Finally, someone with an interest on video games and with more knowledge on psychology.

He just started his blog a few days ago, the few blog posts were quite interesting for gamers and (IMO) stemmed from his gaming observations. For example, he relates the hot hand fallacy with the killstreaks in Modern Warfare 2. Will his blog achieve a degree of success or will it just fill a small niche like my blog here?

His blog: http://www.psychologyofgames.com/

Abstract realism in video games and aggression (Barlett & Rodeheffer, 2009)

I’ve read a post the other day about some observations on the importance of realism between North American and Japanese video game market. (I got another one) It’s one of the different priorities video game developers have. I could guess this could extend to the old media industry as well, of the few foreign television shows I watched (mainly my parents’ shows), the production quality is different and from a first impression, it seemed “inferior”. It’s something that I would investigate in the future.

Christophers Barlett and Rodeheffer have published a paper in Aggressive Behavior on the role of realism on video game violence effects on aggression (cognitive, affect and arousal). Mind you, the concept of realism is complex and multifaceted.

Abstract

Previous research has shown that playing violent video game exposure can increase aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and physiological arousal. This study compared the effects that playing a realistic violent, unrealistic violent, or nonviolent video game for 45min has on such variables. For the purpose of this study, realism was defined as the probability of seeing an event in real life. Participants (N574; 39 male, 35 female) played either a realistic violent, unrealistic violent, or nonviolent video game for 45min. Aggressive thoughts and aggressive feelings were measured four times (every 15min), whereas arousal was measured continuously. The results showed that, though playing any violent game stimulated aggressive thoughts, playing a more realistic violent game stimulated significantly more aggressive feelings and arousal over the course of play.

I just realized that for several months I haven’t watched television for an uninterrupted half-hour. I’m mostly on the internet keeping up with the news.

Video game design through perceptual, cognitive and learning development (Harmon, 2009)

So, I have completed my TOEFL because some grad schools aren’t giving exemptions about my being educated in an Canadian university (Read: English!). I had an easier time writing the essay section than the GRE essay section. I reason the GRE essay questions are more formulaic than the TOEFL. I was so transfixed on following the writing style outlined in my practice books. When I couldn’t remember what to do, I panicked, I remembered less and wasted time.

Josh Harmon, a student from Kennesaw State University, posted his senior thesis on perceptual, cognitive and learning research on video games. It is an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the research. Much of his paper described the research in a positive light, he did discuss some limitations game design ’s effects on certain cognitive abilities, although I wanted to see some reservations on some studies’ methodologies, such as defining video game players.

From these studies, Harmon posited a theory to explain improvements in cognitive abilities. However, it’s preferable to read his post since the following is my attempted summary of the theory. This is called the virtual interaction theory which is a system of feedback loops between the perceptual system, cognitive system and learning abilities. With time and learning, bottom-up processes becomes more efficient with units of information merged into large chunks effectively processing more information, this would in turn affect top-down processes as information organization becomes efficient. This would improve the cognitive system in dealing with information presented in a video game to come up with effective responses and strategies. When firmly established, the systems become efficient in dealing with other, but similar experiences or video games genres. For example, an expert in a specific game has much easier time playing similar games (i.e. same genre)  than a non-expert.  What distinguishes this theory is its integration of the level of control we have in a game and the feeling of presence as part of the feedback loops. Any impairment in either of the two factors can lead to weaker feedback loops. Incidentally, it reminded me of a study on temporal delay in virtual environments. For example, lagging can lead to disassociations between behavioural actions and visual feedback. I hate it when you understand, but can’t express it well.

Source: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9011701

The virtual census: profanity in video games (Ivory et al., 2009)

Several months ago, Dmitri Williams sent word on the internet about his collaborative content analysis work on video game characters. His words were about the gender and racial representations of video game characters and how white and adult male characters are the majority in video games whereas female and minority group characters were under represented. His publication threw fits of rage among the monkeys, while among rational human beings they sought to explain such disproportionate ratio and I procrastinated. I was going to read over the comments from various websites and use them as material for a blog post. I’ll do that sometime soon. [1][2][3][4][5]

Since it’s a collaborative work, there should’ve been more than just one paper and if I had paid more attention, these two articles would have also receive some attention.

I’ll start with the profanities in video games.

Abstract

Although violent video game content and its effects have been examined extensively by empirical research, verbal aggression in the form of profanity has received less attention. Building on preliminary findings from previous studies, an extensive content analysis of profanity in video games was conducted using a sample of the 150 top-selling video games across all popular game platforms (including home consoles, portable consoles, and personal computers). The frequency of profanity, both in general and across three profanity categories, was measured and compared to games’ ratings, sales, and platforms. Generally, profanity was found in about one in five games and appeared primarily in games rated for teenagers or above. Games containing profanity, however, tended to contain it frequently. Profanity was not found to be related to games’ sales or platforms.

More info on the first paper can be found at Terra Nova. The other paper can be read here.

The virtual census: the female body in video games (Martins et al., 2009)

Several months ago, Dmitri Williams sent word on the internet about his collaborative content analysis work on video game characters. His words were about the gender and racial representations of video game characters and how white and adult male characters are the majority in video games whereas female and minority group characters were under represented. His publication threw fits of rage among the monkeys, while among rational human beings they sought to explain such disproportionate ratio and I procrastinated. I was going to read over the comments from various websites and use them as material for a blog post. I’ll do that sometime soon. [1][2][3][4][5]

Since it’s a collaborative work, there should’ve been more than just one paper and if I had paid more attention, these two articles would have also receive some attention.

I’ll start with the female body imagery in video games.

Abstract

The 150 top-selling video games sold in the U.S. across nine platforms were content analyzed to study representations of female bodies. All human females in the games were captured via screenshot and body parts measured. These measurements were then compared to actual anthropometric data drawn from a representative sample of 3,000 American women. The results show that female video game characters at low levels of photorealism are systematically larger than the average American woman whereas female characters at the highest level of photorealism are systematically thinner. This study also found that games rated for children featured females that are thinner than characters in games rated for adults. These findings are discussed in terms of cultivation theory.

More info on the first paper can be read at Terra Nova. The other paper is found here.

Video game character identification, cultural stereotyping and hostility (Eastin et al., 2009)

When a related study was posted on ScienceDaily, it reminded of a long forgotten post and was misplaced in my files. The two studies are related in that it dealt with stereotype priming within computer-mediated environments. Matthew Eastin (University of Texas at Austin) had published a study on the effects of playing as black avatars within a first-person shooter.

Abstract

The current study examines the impact of racial representation on character identification and postgame play hostility. Examining data from Black and White participants, results suggest that cueing racial attributes influences identification and elicits stereotyping and hostile outcomes. Specifically, White players displayed more hostile thoughts when playing as a Black character than they did playing as a White character. Black participants had more hostile thoughts when playing against a White opponent than they did playing against a Black opponent. This research supports previous literature suggesting that self, character, and opponent interact to influence game-play outcomes.

Be mindful, this study is done by those experienced in video game research (Matthew Eastin and Vincent Cicchirillo) and ethnic minorities in media (Osei Appiah).

Journalistic misinterpretation: The case of Melamed’s study (Lavigne, 2009)

Chris Lavigne has written again another Escapist article on the follies of journalistic misinterpretation of academic research. This time, he presented a case on how an article from Pediatrics has been distorted and why it matters. His article is supporting evidence in one of his earlier article. Please read his article before continuing.

This particular portion of the article drew my attention:

The flawed coverage points out two troubling problems with new media: 1) Highly specialized websites don’t provide the kind of general information that traditional media does, and 2) The speed and volume of online content production often means sources are not properly verified.

Both points are relevant in my position as a research blogger. As the title of my blog indicate, I usually report psychological studies on video games because my major is psychology which gives some knowledge in evaluating research in that field. I don’t feel confident at all in evaluating studies outside my field (e.g. medicine or psychiatry), sometimes I don’t understand  half of the content.

His second point hits dead-on. Whenever, video game blogs or website writes about a research study, that I haven’t read or don’t know about, I often drop everything to get my hands on the article, speed read it and write my post as soon as possible. Although, I have the original source with me, the chances of misreading it can be high when I’m pressured to post as quickly as possible and possibly influenced by the original poster of said study (often gamepolitics). Furthermore, I believe a self-imposed belief might be a factor in some of my speedy posts: “if I don’t post soon enough, readers’ attention would be drawn away to something and carry whatever knowledge and opinion they have about this study.” or something like.

Aside from the studies mentioned in the news, I write my blog posts during my spare time. I am a (hopeful) social scientist who likes to study video games and a gamer. However, there are times when I reflected on the weight of reviewing serious works by professionals and have the public read about them through my words. There are recurring questions that crossed my mind: “Did my post contain excessive biases?”, “Am I too harsh or too lenient in my review?”, “Have I sufficiently outlined the authors’ original intent?”, “Did I miss some important points?”, “What if I said something wrong?” and “Is what I am doing a good thing?” A few pointers on how to improve my postings would be nice.

Source: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_227/6757-Step-Into-the-Light

Effects of immersion in nature on intrinsic aspirations and generosity (Weinstein et al., 2009)

This is a non-video game study, but its implications could be significant to video games or media in general. For an unknown reason, this article showed up in my database alert, normally I would ignore it if it wasn’t for Andrew Przybylski as co-author. See university press release.

Abstract

Four studies examined the effects of nature on valuing intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations. Intrinsic aspirations reflected prosocial and other-focused value orientations, and extrinsic aspirations predicted self-focused value orientations. Participants immersed in natural environments reported higher valuing of intrinsic aspirations and lower valuing of extrinsic aspirations, whereas those immersed in non-natural environments reported increased valuing of extrinsic aspirations and no change of intrinsic aspirations. Three studies explored experiences of nature relatedness and autonomy as underlying mechanisms of these effects, showing that nature immersion elicited these processes whereas non-nature immersion thwarted them and that they in turn predicted higher intrinsic and lower extrinsic aspirations. Studies 3 and 4 also extended the paradigm by testing these effects on generous decision making indicative of valuing intrinsic versus extrinsic aspirations.

I guess the word immersion was the key factor in the database alert. And I’ll just fill in the missing details from the abstract.