Physiological and emotional responses to violent events in an FPS game (Ravaja et al., 2008)

I recently learned the term science journalism and what I am doing approximate to that: Reporting on scientific findings for the general public, or in this case to gamers.

 Anyways, I was browsing in kotaku when an article in gamecritics.com had made a reference to study about participants emotional and physiological responses to violent events. Since I’m still an undergraduate student, I am so busy with a lot of things that I feel that this blog is neglected…

 Abstract

The authors examined emotional valence- and arousal-related phasic psychophysiological responses to different violent events in the first-person shooter video game “James Bond 007: NightFire” among 36 young adults. Event-related changes in zygomaticus major, corrugator supercilii, and orbicularis oculi electromyographic (EMG) activity and skin conductance level (SCL) were recorded, and the participants rated their emotions and the trait psychoticism based on the Psychoticism dimension of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised, Short Form. Wounding and killing the opponent elicited an increase in SCL and a decrease in zygomatic and orbicularis oculi EMG activity. The decrease in zygomatic and orbicularis oculi activity was less pronounced among high Psychoticism scorers compared with low Psychoticism scorers. The wounding and death of the player’s own character (James Bond) elicited an increase in SCL and zygomatic and orbicularis oculi EMG activity and a decrease in corrugator activity. Instead of joy resulting from victory and success, wounding and killing the opponent may elicit high-arousal negative affect (anxiety), with high Psychoticism scorers experiencing less anxiety than low Psychoticism scorers. Although counterintuitive, the wounding and death of the player’s own character may increase some aspect of positive emotion.

Graduate school response #1

Approximately one month ago, I sent my graduate application to the University of Michigan’s communication studies in the hopes of the studying the psychology of video games. On February 19, 2008, I receive their response:

The Ph.D. Program in Mass Communication at the University of Michigan receives many more applications than the number of positions available.  I regret we must inform you that you have not been recommended for admission to the program for the Fall of 2007. 

We had a large pool of qualified applicants this year. Due to the program’s limited size, able students often fail to gain admission because others, whose plans of study or aptitudes are more suited to the program, have applied.

We wish you success in your academic plans and appreciate the interest you expressed in doing advanced work here.

With this rejection letter, it might the mean the path in academia might not be open for me for a good while or closed for good. I say this because I also applied to the University of Michigan’s psychology department as well, it is also tougher than communication studies to get into.

As of now, I am waiting for two more responses from grad schools I applied to. I could have applied to 4 more grad schools, but many of the professors I contacted either had a full complement of grad students or their institutions don’t have a graduate program.

To anyone, gamer, journalist or anyone,  what can an avid and knowledgeable gamer with a B.A. in psychology can do in life and in a career?

Most importantly for this blog, will my soon-to-be-lost university library connection and soon-to-be arrested academic development render this blog useless in the coming months?

Gender differences in brain activations while playing video games (Hoeft et al., 2008)

gamepolitics.com had posted a study that was mentioned by a news radio about how men are more likely to be addicted to video games than women. Following the comments in gamepolitics.com, it seems that again we need someone to read the article directly in order to present all the information to prevent any misinformation. More details can be found in the news release from Stanford’s School of medicine.

Abstract

Little is known about the underlying neural processes of playing computer/video games, despite the high prevalence of its gaming behavior, especially in males. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study contrasting a space-infringement game with a control task, males showed greater activation and functional connectivity compared to females in the mesocorticolimbic system. These findings may be attributable to higher motivational states in males, as well as gender differences in reward prediction, learning reward values and cognitive state during computer video games. These gender differences may help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become “hooked” on video games than females.

Fumiko Hoeft, initially misspelled as Fumiko Hayft, and colleagues conducted a study to look into gender differences in brain activations while playing a simple video game.

Now in their short literature review, they described studies that have found that addiction to video games are more likely to occur among men than women. (Griffiths & Hunt, 1998). Along with other brain scan studies that show brain activations while playing video games. So they decided to look at specific areas of the brain, the mesocorticolimbic system, and see whether there are gender differences.

Video games and positive adolescent development (Durkin & Barber, 2002)

It’s a bit old, but since people have been talking about negative effects of video games on children, I thought getting some positive might cheer people and gamers up.

Abstract

It has been speculated that computer game play by young people has negative correlates or consequences, although little evidence has emerged to support these fears. An alternative possibility is that game play may be associated with positive features of development, as the games reflect and contribute to participation in a challenging and stimulating voluntary leisure environment. This study examined the relationship between game play and several measures of adjustment or risk taking in a sample of 1,304 16-year-old high school students. No evidence was obtained of negative outcomes among game players. On several measures–including family closeness, activity involvement, positive school engagement, positive mental health, substance use, self-concept, friendship network, and disobedience to parents–game players scored more favorably than did peers who never played computer games. It is concluded that computer games can be a positive feature of a healthy adolescence. 

 

Affective response to video games: effects of personality, gender and in-game reinforcement (Chumbley & Griffiths, 2006)

I am getting the impression that American and European psychologists have differing views on video game effects.

Abstract

Previous research on computer games has tended to concentrate on their more negative effects (e.g., addiction, increased aggression). This study departs from the traditional clinical and social learning explanations for these behavioral phenomena and examines the effect of personality, in-game reinforcement characteristics, gender, and skill on the emotional state of the game-player. Results demonstrated that in-game reinforcement characteristics and skill significantly effect a number of affective measures (most notably excitement and frustration). The implications of the impact of game-play on affect are discussed with reference to the concepts of “addiction” and “aggression.”

The impact of voice in an online video game (Williams et al., 2007)

This relates to the kotaku article about players using teamspeak. This study is more related to the video games than the Sheeks & Birchmeier (2007) study. On that note from Kotaku about voice being a mood killer, it sounds like a nice hypothesis to check out. I should also check out the mostly-male players reactions to a woman’s voice, I wonder if the males would fight each other in order to court that woman… I’m not thinking straight right now…feeling drowsy.

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a controlled field experiment in which voice communication was introduced into an existing online community (online gaming guilds within the popular game “World of Warcraft”), comparing a mix of voice and text with text only. Quantitative results suggest increases in liking and trust due to the addition of voice, as well as insulation from unexpected negative impacts of text-only play. The findings are discussed with respect to social capital, cyberbalkanization, and the general computer-mediated communication literature, with special attention paid to social information processing theory.

What’s strange about me is that I like playing video games and watching anime. However, I never played online multiplayer games once in my life and yet I want to study them. Maybe that unknown territory makes it very tempting to see how it looks like. If you’re wondering why, it’s because I’m still on dial-up and I have a fear of MMO addiction (quite the irrational thought).

Shyness, Sociability, and the Use of Computer-Mediated Communication in Relationship Development (Sheeks & Birchmeier, 2007)

What does that got to do with computer games? Actually it relates to our communication with each other through computers. Kotaku wrote a nice post from Wired’s Clive Thompson about using Teamspeak over at World of Warcraft (I prefer the kotaku link first because of the funny picture, but kotaku still has the wired link). Read it and you’ll get it why it’s here.

Abstract

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) offers its users a reduced-cues environment, a chosen degree of identifiability to others, and a forum to express facets of one’s self. Previous research suggests CMC is more appealing than traditional forms of communication to certain individuals whose desires to be sociable with others are prohibited by social inhibitions. The present study predicted that individuals who indicated higher levels of both shyness and sociability would be able to express their true-selves to a greater extent online. Their relationships online would grow more quickly and be more satisfying relative to others. The pattern of results supports our hypotheses, except for the predicted relationship between true-self expression and CMC use. Suggestions for future research as well as implications for the application of CMC use in therapy for certain populations are addressed.

So busy, busy, busy and why am I just putting the article’s abstract? It’s not fair for the readers, I guess.

Differences between playing a lot and addiction in MMOs (Charlton & Danforth, 2007)

This study is at least 3 years old now, it was published online in 2005 and only recently “officially” published in paper just last year. It’s really hard on me since I have to keep my library references up to date. Also, I haven’t counted the exact number of article published for 2007 that relates to video games from psychology and related fields, such as communications. But, I stopped counting at 20 articles. It’s really hard on me… Well on to an article, this time something for MMOs.

Abstract

This study considered whether the distinction between core and peripheral criteria for behavioral addiction, previously drawn with respect to computing activities in general, applies in the specific area of Massively Multiplayer Online Game playing. Questionnaire items were administered over the Internet to 442 game players. Factor-analysis of the data supported the previous findings for computing in general. An addiction factor loaded on items tapping previously identified core criteria (conflict, withdrawal symptoms, relapse and reinstatement and behavioral salience) and a (non-pathological) engagement factor loaded on items tapping previously identified peripheral criteria (cognitive salience, tolerance and euphoria). Analysis of response frequencies supported the existence of a developmental process whereby peripheral criteria are met before core criteria. Players who might be considered addicted using a monothetic classification system involving only the core criteria were shown to spend a significantly greater amount of time playing per week than those endorsing only the peripheral criteria. It is concluded that the study supports the idea that it is inappropriate to use some of the previously used criteria for addiction when researching or diagnosing computer-related addictions. Implications of the present findings for Internet-mediated data collection methodologies are also discussed.

I seemed to recall of having read this article before starting my blog, oh well.

Social evaluations of stereotypes in video games (Brenick et al., 2007)

Gamepolitics.com featured a Fox News show called Live Desk where they talked about the sexual scenes in Mass Effect. What got my attention is the study that Cooper Lawrence had mentioned.

“Darling, I gotta go with the research. And the research says there’s a new study out of the University of Maryland right now that says that boys that play video games cannot tell the difference between what they’re seeing in the video game and the real world…”

So, I went googling and sent e-mails to Cooper Lawrence (actually to her show’s e-mail) and to Dr. Melanie Killen at the University of Maryland whom she’s the closest match to Lawrence’s descriptions. Dr.Killen responded that it sounds like that Lawrence is referring to one of her study (which I’m going to talk about later), but she wasn’t sure. I’m not sure either, starting from the article’s title. Perhaps, a case of exaggeration? No response yet from Cooper Lawrence, but then I think my e-mail wasn’t comprehensible, had severe stomaches. So, here’s the closest article, unfortunately it’s 25 pages long and I’ve got lots of lab work to do…

Until Cooper Lawrence confirm that this is indeed the study she referred to, there’s little point in analyzing to counter her arguments. The reasons are that her statement might be interpreted in many ways or that she might confused. One possibility is that Mrs. Lawrence might be referring to the death cases of MMO addicts.

 Update (25/01/08): I googled around to get some more info and there’s seems to be some confusion over this journal article, some blogs ( like this one at destructoid) had made some references to news article (1), (2). Apparently, they are all talking about the same study which it was presented in conferences years ago, but is recently published in an academic journal. (A little insight: studies don’t get published right away until the reviewers and editors are satisfied, this could take between 1 month to who knows. And distinguished journals like Nature, have very strict quality control.)

 Update (31/01/08): an MTV article about Cooper Lawrence following the Mass Effects sex scenes had made a direct reference to the journal article that I had suspected. HOWEVER, it is still not clear whether Cooper Lawrence provided the reference or not. In any case, I decided to write my ’summary’ of the study. However, I advise anyone to read the journal article itself, if possible.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess late adolescents’ evaluations of and reasoning about gender stereotypes in video games. Female (n = 46) and male (n = 41) students, predominantly European American, with a mean age 19 years, are interviewed about their knowledge of game usage, awareness and evaluation of stereotypes, beliefs about the influences of games on the players, and authority jurisdiction over three different types of games: games with negative male stereotypes, games with negative female stereotypes, and gender-neutral games. Gender differences are found for how participants evaluated these games. Males are more likely than females to find stereotypes acceptable. Results are discussed in terms of social reasoning, video game playing, and gender differences.  

Relation of time spent on video games and other activities (Cummings & Vandewater, 2007)

This is to follow up on the previous post about video game use and academic performance. This article was also referred by gamepolitics.com.

 Abstract

Objective  To examine the notion that playing video games is negatively related to the time adolescents spend in more developmentally appropriate activities. Design  Nonexperimental study.

Setting  Survey data collected during the 2002-2003 school year.

Participants  A nationally representative sample of 1491 children aged 10 to 19 years.

Main Outcome Measure  Twenty-four–hour time-use diaries were collected on 1 weekday and 1 weekend day, both randomly chosen. Time-use diaries were used to determine adolescents’ time spent playing video games, with parents and friends, reading and doing homework, and in sports and active leisure.

Results  Differences in time spent between game players and nonplayers as well as the magnitude of the relationships among game time and activity time among adolescent game players were assessed. Thirty-six percent of adolescents (80% of boys and 20% of girls) played video games. On average, gamers played for an hour on the weekdays and an hour and a half on the weekends. Compared with nongamers, adolescent gamers spent 30% less time reading and 34% less time doing homework. Among gamers (both genders), time spent playing video games without parents or friends was negatively related to time spent with parents and friends in other activities.

Conclusions  Although gamers and nongamers did not differ in the amount of time they spent interacting with family and friends, concerns regarding gamers’ neglect of school responsibilities (reading and homework) are warranted. Although only a small percentage of girls played video games, our findings suggest that playing video games may have different social implications for girls than for boys.

Cummings, H. M., & Vandewater, E. A. (2007). Relation of adolescent video game play to time spent in other activities. Archives of Pediatrics Adolescent Medicine, 161(7), 684-689.