Author Topic: violent video games ARE good for you  (Read 728 times)

Offline udet

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violent video games ARE good for you
« on: May 29, 2003, 11:17:47 AM »
from yahoo.com:


And now, the news that every parent dreads. Researchers are reporting today that first-person-shooter video games the kind that require players to kill or maim enemies or monsters that pop out of nowhere sharply improve visual attention skills.
 

Experienced players of these games are 30 percent to 50 percent better than nonplayers at taking in everything that happens around them, according to the research, which appears today in the journal Nature. They identify objects in their peripheral vision, perceiving numerous objects without having to count them, switch attention rapidly and track many items at once.


Nor are players simply faster at these tasks, said Dr. Daphne Bavelier, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Rochester, who led the study. First-person action games increase the brain's capacity to spread attention over a wide range of events. Other types of action games, including those that focus on strategy or role playing, do not produce the same effect.


While some researchers have suggested possible links between video games and other abilities, this study is thought to be the first to explore their effects on visual skills. Though the number of subjects was small, Dr. Bavelier said, the effects were too large to be a result of chance.


"We were really surprised," Dr. Bavelier said, adding that as little as 10 hours of play substantially increased visual skills among novice players. "You get better at a lot of things, not just the game," she said.


But Dr. Bavelier emphasized that the improved visual attention skills did not translate to reading, writing and mathematics. Nor is it clear that they lead to higher I.Q. scores, although visual attention and reaction time are important components of many standardized tests.


"Please, keep doing your homework," said Dr. Bavelier, the mother of 6-year-old twins and a 2-year-old.


Dr. Jeremy Wolfe, the director of the Visual Attention Laboratory at Harvard Medical School (news - web sites), who was not involved in the study, said he was intrigued at the idea that "socially dubious games might improve something like general intelligence."


"It might give every 14-year-old something to tell his parents," Dr. Wolfe said. " `Hey, don't make me study. Give me another grenade.' "


Still, he noted that an increased capacity for visual attention was helpful in tasks as diverse as !!!!flying!!!!, driving, radiology and airport screening.


Dr. Bavelier is an expert on how experience changes the brain, particularly the effects of congenital deafness on visual skills and attention. A few years ago, a Rochester student, Shawn Green, asked to work on a senior project in her laboratory. They agreed that he would help design visual attention tasks for the deaf.


But when Mr. Green tried out the tests, he found they were ridiculously easy, Dr. Bavelier said. So did his friends, who were all devoted to video games.


The professor and her student decided to study the connection between video game playing and visual attention. They carried out four experiments on undergraduates, all of them male because no female shooter game fans could be found on campus.


The first tested the ability to localize targets in a cluttered environment and spread visual attention over a wide area a skill that many elderly drivers lose. Gamers performed at least 50 percent better than nongamers, Dr. Bavelier said.


The second involved the ability to say, instantly, how many objects were flashed on a screen. Most people can do this with up to four objects, Dr. Bavelier said. Above that, they start counting. Gamers could identify up to 10 items on a screen without counting.


The other two experiments tested the players' ability to process fast-occurring visual information and to switch attention. Again, players were far superior to nonplayers.


A fifth experiment trained nonplayers, including some women, for 10 consecutive days on one of two video games either Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a first-person-shooter game that simulates World War II combat situations, or the slower-moving puzzle game Tetris. Only the shooter game improved visual attention, Dr. Bavelier said, and it did so in both sexes. Among novices, the effects waned within a couple of months, but superior visual attention skills seemed firmly rooted in game addicts.


Dr. Bavelier said the next step would be to tease the games apart to find out what aspects promoted brain changes. Are violence and danger necessary? Does this sort of brain plasticity change with age? Will it affect certain measures of intelligence?

Meanwhile, she said, the military is already exploiting action games to train special forces.

"To enter territory you've never seen and detect where your enemies are," she went on, "you need an accurate understanding of the visual scene."
« Last Edit: May 29, 2003, 11:21:17 AM by udet »

Offline AKIron

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2003, 11:23:55 AM »
Wondering if Aces High fits into that category.
Here we put salt on Margaritas, not sidewalks.

Offline Hawklore

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2003, 11:33:56 AM »
Perhaps, if you flew with out the icons on..or small icons..
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life." - Chief Tecumseh

Offline udet

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2003, 11:34:17 AM »
I think it does. Basically they are talking about SA.

Offline LePaul

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2003, 11:41:42 AM »
I showed a co-worker "Postal 2".  Yes yes, very therapeutic and all....but she was a bit appaled at my urinating on women, kicking people's heads off and lighting crowds on fire.

But Im very relaxed  :p

Offline Manedew

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2003, 04:16:52 PM »
I've been playing FPS since they've exsited .. not sure which I was playing first Wolfenstien 3-d or Faceball 2000 on SNES(proably the frist true split screen 2-player FPS for consules).

Anyway I think games like that and later Doom, etc, etc made me quite fast .... I picked up piano at 17 and play Chopin and Rach now :D, I've impressed my freinds (on accident) by catching a lighter aimed at my ear without turnign my head or eyes.... some of these may be from basketball etc .. but some of it I feel comes from good ole' video games and maybe typeing.

And good ole' AH is the best ... ever try to evade 8 cons and track and clear your wingman .... usally don't live .. but that takes better SA than any FPS I've ever played

Offline AKIron

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2003, 04:44:32 PM »
The first multiplayer first person shooter I played was midi maze on the Atari ST. You connected the STs together via midi cables and ran around in a maze as balls (think smiley face) shooting at each other. Was a blast, '86 or '87 I think.
Here we put salt on Margaritas, not sidewalks.

Offline Glasses

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2003, 05:51:46 PM »
Well Playing Flight Sims since Junior High certainly helped me when I went into the cockpit for real I soloed at 15 hrs time,while most of my classmates took 20+ hours to get there. At least Flight sims helped a bit in that,although in Cross country I was a mess :D
« Last Edit: May 29, 2003, 06:10:33 PM by Glasses »

Offline AKS\/\/ulfe

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2003, 06:07:59 PM »
Combat flight sims help me get laid... "Hey honey, you know I'm a fighter pilot?"

Works everytime!
-SW
(or maybe it's the $200 I hand them)

Offline Glasses

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #9 on: May 29, 2003, 06:11:36 PM »
Hmm? Now I know what I'll do when I have enough money saved up :D

Offline vorticon

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #10 on: May 29, 2003, 06:17:48 PM »
actually how could it improve peripheral vision your focusing on a small area in front of you...


and actually you already have to have relativly good reflexes SA and such when you start playing because if you dont you die...fast...and often

Offline AKS\/\/ulfe

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« Reply #11 on: May 29, 2003, 06:38:37 PM »
Peripheral vision is really no different than your forward vision, it just doesn't have the same ability to focus.

So in reality, while you are staring at a small area in front of you- you are paying attention to a far wider area in front of you than your focused on. You look at your gunsight reticle, everything else is actually peripheral on larger monitors. You look at the bad guy to your left, the other guy on the opposite side of the screen is in your peripheral vision. This would improve your brain's attention to areas outside of your vision's focal point, and would more than likely mean that you will notice "something" in any part of your vision other than your focal point and may recognize it- or bring your focal point to it. It doesn't necesarily mean you'll see something and be able to focus on it out of the corner of your eye, it means you'll pick it up in the corner of your eye and the possibility of your brain bringing attention to it is higher than before.

You don't have to have good SA, reflexes, or much of anything other than not be completely uncoordinated when you first start playing FPS or action type games (such as combat sims)... most people are easy targets when they first start out and get worked over time after time until they begin to catch on. A lot of it is subconscious, so the younger you start, the better you'll be when you're older since your brain is still in its learning phase.

In the die, rinse, repeat world of virtual gaming- everyone starts off toejamty, and has to work their way up from there. Some people will learn quicker than others, but I doubt theres anyone out there that was unbeatable the first time they picked up a mouse and a keyboard.
-SW

Offline vorticon

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #12 on: May 29, 2003, 08:15:00 PM »
yeah sure that stunninghunk to the left of my gunsight is in my "simulated" periferal vision but not in my real...in my real all i see is a bookshelve my scanner and a door...

Offline AKS\/\/ulfe

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #13 on: May 29, 2003, 08:25:06 PM »
You don't understand- peripheral vision is all vision that is not at the focal point.

If you are focusing on the left side of your screen- center of your vision- the right side of your screen *IS* your peripheral vision.

Not in the simulated sense.
-SW

Offline vorticon

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violent video games ARE good for you
« Reply #14 on: May 29, 2003, 08:26:28 PM »
yeah but im always focusing on the center of my screen...i know what you mean but for me periferal always ment to me more than 30-45 degrees outside my focal point