Traces Of The Brain’s Learning Potential Present Within “Uneducational” Video Games

Abstract

Video games, especially in mobile devices, have the reputation of being negative to the mass consumer. They are thought to be addictive, mind-numbing time waster. But is that really true? A study has been conducted to analyze video games design styles based on neuroaffective computational model using electroencephalogram (EEG). Although the objective is to classify abstract and realistic design styles, a different off-topic materials have been discovered. During the data collection, subjects completed an aptitude test using an online instrument provided by the Cambridge University’s Brain Lab. The EEG instruments recorded specific brain functions (cognitive, memory, verbal, creativity) separately. After classifying the data with emotional response, each brain functions give unique valence versus arousal scatter plot. What is interesting, however, is that when all of them plotted together in a single chart, they form a pattern similar to the data collected for playing video games. Could it possibly be that playing video games indeed stimulate specific brain functions? Or are these similarities in valence versus arousal plots just plain coincidences? A future research designed for brain function correlation using other model than emotions can confirm these findings. But for now, the consistency of these findings for all the subjects are hard to ignore.