We have probably all read or heard negative things about online gaming; ranging from the connection to the obesity epidemic, its association with violent crimes, or just the endless complaints of parents who try, often unsuccessfully, to pry their children away from computer or TV screens.
But is it all bad?
Last year I attended an elearning conference where one of the keynote speakers, Professor Martin Westwell gave an address, “Creating Capacity: Meeting the Needs of an Uncertain Future”. According to Professor Westwell, (Flinders Centre for Science and Education), online gaming can be very useful in developing skills that are essential in many professions.
In a study of surgeons who were ‘gamers’ – those who played for more than 3 hours per day – 37% had less errors and were 27% faster than their non-gamer colleagues. Interestingly top scorers in those games had 47% less errors and were 39% faster!!
So now the essential question for anyone going in for surgery is no longer, “What is the success rate?” or “What are the risks?” but “What was your highest score on Call of Duty 4?” If they look at you strangely or don’t immediately respond with “4,955,123,125” then get the heck outta there!!
Professor Westwell also talked about how gaming helps with the mastery of the ‘executive functions’. He compared the game ‘Medal of Honour’ to ‘Tetris’.
Medal of Honour demands high capacity for attention, an immediate response and strategic problem solving. Tetris on the other hand, while does prove rather challenging for us less fortunate in the “brain, do this” coordination area, doesn’t demand the same attention and focus.
In this multimedia world, you would only need to ask a teacher; if the task doesn’t demand attention then they (the students) become more distracted by it. And to really make a point, for anyone who has seen a teenager in action – they can be playing a game, while listening to their iPods, chatting with friends AND (they will tell you) doing their homework!
So what actually does gaming improve, in learning, in professional development and in life?
According to Professor Westwall it can assist in manipulation of the environment – mastery of the executive functions.
- Ability to sustain or appropriately switch attention
- Inhibition of responses/impulses
- Planning strategies of behaviour
- Error correction
- Switching strategies
- Increased problem solving
- Working memory
- Coordination/thinking
- Locus of control (perceived within their control)
Other benefits would include developing greater hand/eye coordination, social interaction (yes, even if not sitting in the same room), and its simply fun!
Interestingly another study, amongst students, showed it help to develop empathy.
I read an interesting article “Gaming for Good” by Kyle Smith which refers to a study which suggests “that video games can be a force for good, finding that games with positive objectives can actually inspire people to perform acts of altruism.”
“Over four experiments, Tobias Greitemeyer and Silia Osswald, researchers at the University of Sussex in England and Ludwig-Maximilian University in Germany, respectively, had participants play either a “prosocial” game—a game where the goal is to help others—or a “neutral” game, meaning it has no characters with whom to interact positively or negatively, like Tetris. Then the researchers placed the participants in situations where they had the opportunity to help others, ranging from low-risk situations, such as seeing a dropped cup of pencils, to high-risk ones, like witnessing an angry ex-boyfriend harass an experimenter.”
“Greitemeyer and Osswald wanted to see if the participants were more likely to intervene after playing a prosocial game such as Lemmings (pictured), which tasks players with ensuring the safety of a group of fatally stupid creatures.”
You can read the article in full here.
So do video games affect the way we behave? Research suggests that technology, (and for the purpose of this article I will emphasise online gaming), doesn’t change the way you think as such, but rather it’s about who you are and out of that, what you do with it. However, research seems to indicate that it can give access to extremes of behaviour. So if your bent is toward stealing cars then perhaps Grand Theft Auto is going to enhance the desire to steal the neighbours Ferrari! By the same token, if you are an altruist then an hour of saving the planet in the latest Superhero game may have you indeed flying through the sky faster than a speeding bullet!!
At the end of the day we live in a world where we are faced with many complex decisions and situations, and that’s even before we have left the house! So maybe we would be more equipped if the morning news was replaced with a run around the track with Super Mario? It might make the drive to work more fun!!
You can listen to the address by Professor Westwell here.
Kylie Munro
Insight International Consultancy
