Electronic Game Play Research Articles

The Relation between Electronic Game Play and Executive Function among Preschoolers

We examined the relation between electronic game play and executive function (EF) in Chinese preschoolers. One hundred and nineteen 3- to 6-year-old children participated. Children’s working memory, inhibition, and planning were assessed as measures of EF development. Parents completed a questionnaire regarding children’s electronic game play time and the game content. The results showed that time spent on electronic games (M = 0.30 h, SD = 0.41, ranging from 0 to 2.14 h per day) was positively related to EF when controlling for other relevant factors, such as children’s age, gender, and socioeconomic status. However, action content in electronic games was negatively related to one inhibition aspect of EF, but not two other aspects, namely working memory and planning. The results of the present study indicate time spent using media is associated with EF development in children but that evidence for content-related issues is inconclusive.

A large scale test of the gaming-enhancement hypothesis.

A growing research literature suggests that regular electronic game play and game-based training programs may confer practically significant benefits to cognitive functioning. Most evidence supporting this idea, the gaming-enhancement hypothesis, has been collected in small-scale studies of university students and older adults. This research investigated the hypothesis in a general way with a large sample of 1,847 school-aged children. Our aim was to examine the relations between young people’s gaming experiences and an objective test of reasoning performance. Using a Bayesian hypothesis testing approach, evidence for the gaming-enhancement and null hypotheses were compared. Results provided no substantive evidence supporting the idea that having preference for or regularly playing commercially available games was positively associated with reasoning ability. Evidence ranged from equivocal to very strong in support for the null hypothesis over what was predicted. The discussion focuses on the value of Bayesian hypothesis testing for investigating electronic gaming effects, the importance of open science practices, and pre-registered designs to improve the quality of future work.

Excessive Game-Playing and Children's Academic Performance in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

AbstractPeople are uncertain about the role of excessive electronic game-playing on children's academic performance. It is on this premise that this study examines the effects of excessive electronic game-playing on children's academic performance in Port Harcourt. The study use survey and quasi-experiment to sample 371 students of Junior Secondary school 1-3 who are within the age brackets of 10-12. Based on the problem and objectives of the study, research questions were formulated. Research question one to know the extent of excessive game-playing among the children, while research question two sought ascertain the relationship between excessive game-playing and the academic performance of children. A null hypothesis was also formulated and tested with the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient with the level of significance tested at 0.5 level of significance. The findings showed that a proportion of the sampled population met the criterion of addiction and the majority of the children were still non-frequent gamers. The result also showed that there is a negative correlation between excessive game-playing and academic performance as the majority of the very high scorers in tests administered on the children were from the category labelled as non-frequent and low frequent gamers. The null hypothesis that said 'there is no significant relationship between extent of excessive play and academic performance was rejected, as the r-value was -0.27. Based on these findings, it was recommended that parents should monitor their children's gaming habits and that governments should control the importation of entertainment games and encourage more of educational games.

Electronic gaming and the obesity crisis.

Children and adolescents in the United States and in many countries are projected to have shorter life spans than their parents, partly because of the obesity crisis engulfing the developed world. Exposure to electronic media is often implicated in this crisis because media use, including electronic game play, may promote sedentary behavior and increase consumption of high-calorie foods and beverages that are low in nutritional value. Electronic games, however, may increase children's physical activity and expose them to healthier foods. We examine the role of electronic games in the pediatric obesity crisis and their contribution to more favorable health outcomes.

Active-Input Provides More Movement and Muscle Activity During Electronic Game Playing by Children

The majority of children in affluent countries now play electronic games, and this has lead to concerns about the health impact of this activity. Traditional electronic games have used gamepad, keyboard, and mouse input, but newer game interfaces that require more movement are now available. However the movement and muscle activity demands of electronic games have not been described. This study compared the amount of movement and muscle activity while 20 children aged 9 to 12 years watched a DVD and played games using handheld computer, gamepad, keyboard, steering wheel and, active-input (Webcam motion analysis–Sony EyeToy®) devices. Movement of the head, sacrum, foot, shoulder, wrist, and thumb was measured along with activity in cervical erector spinae, lumbar erector spinae, rectus femoris, upper trapezius, anterior deltoid, and wrist extensor muscles. Use of the wheel resulted in some increase in upper limb movement and muscle activity, but the other traditional input devices were usually as sedentary as watching a DVD. In contrast, use of the active-input device (EyeToy) resulted in substantial movement and muscle activity in limbs and torso. These results suggest that playing traditional electronic games is indeed a sedentary activity but that new active-input technologies may be useful in encouraging more movement and muscle activity in children.

Electronic Game Play and School Performance of Adolescents in Southern Thailand

Increasing exposure of children and adolescents to electronic media is a worldwide phenomenon, including in Thailand. To date, few studies examine electronic game play in Thai adolescents. Our research describes the prevalence of electronic game play and examines associations between the time spent engaged in electronic game play and school performance of adolescents in Hat-Yai municipality. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,492 adolescents from four secondary schools and one commercial college from January through March 2007, using questionnaires for collecting information about demographic data, school grades, and electronic game play behaviors. The prevalence of electronic game play was 75% in boys and 59% in girls. Twenty-two percent of boys and 8.7% of girls played electronic games every day with more than 2 hours per session. The two most common places of game play were at game shops (71%), followed by at their own home (70%). Using linear regression analysis, the "low user or less than 2 hours per session" game players and females were less likely to have school grades below 3.00 with adjusted odds ratios of 0.44 (95% CI 0.25-0.80, p = 0.004) and 0.49 (95% CI 0.30-0.76, p = 0.005) respectively. This study finds that excessive playing of electronic games is associated with school grades below 3.00.

Relationships between Electronic Game Play, Obesity, and Psychosocial Functioning in Young Men

Most estimates suggest that American youth are spending a large amount of time playing video and computer games, spurring researchers to examine the impact this media has on various aspects of health and psychosocial functioning. The current study investigated relationships between frequency of electronic game play and obesity, the social/emotional context of electronic game play, and academic performance among 219 college-aged males. Current game players reported a weekly average of 9.73 hours of game play, with almost 10% of current players reporting an average of 35 hours of play per week. Results indicated that frequency of play was not significantly related to body mass index or grade point average. However, there was a significant positive correlation between frequency of play and self-reported frequency of playing when bored, lonely, or stressed. As opposed to the general conception of electronic gaming as detrimental to functioning, the results suggest that gaming among college-aged men may provide a healthy source of socialization, relaxation, and coping.

Cyber sexy: Electronic game play and perceptions of attractiveness among college-aged men

The current study was conducted to determine if electronic gaming among males is related to body image, formation of body ideals, and appraisals of female attractiveness. A sample of 219 college-aged men (age 18–32) completed a variety of measures that assessed their game play habits, their perceptions of their own attractiveness, and perceptions of women's attractiveness. Results indicated that participants’ ratings of women's attractiveness varied across the genres of game most frequently played but was not related to age of commencement or frequency of electronic game play. Additionally, frequency of play and age of commencement of game play were not related to self-perceptions of physical attractiveness, the association of positive attributes with muscularity, or the drive to become more muscular. Men's appearance satisfaction and valuation of muscularity was related to the extent to which they compare their own appearance to that of the characters featured in their electronic games. The results indicate that, unlike other forms of media, electronic gaming may have a weaker relationship to decreased appearance satisfaction or the formation of unrealistic standards of attractiveness.

Hostility among adolescents in Switzerland? multivariate relations between excessive media use and forms of violence

purpose To determine what kind of violence-related behavior or opinion is directly related to excessive media use among adolescents in Switzerland. Methods A national representative sample of 4222 schoolchildren (7th- and 8th-graders; mean age 13.9 years) answered questions on the frequency of television-viewing, electronic game-playing, feeling unsafe at school, bullying others, hitting others, and fighting with others, as part of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) international collaborative study protocol. The Chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression analyses were applied to high-risk groups of adolescents. Results For the total sample, all bivariate relationships between television-viewing/electronic game-playing and each violence-related variable are significant. In the multivariate comparison, physical violence among boys ceases to be significant. For girls, only television-viewing is linked to indirect violence. Against the hypothesis, females’ electronic game-playing only had a bearing on hitting others. Conclusions Experimental designs are needed that take into account gender, different forms of media, and violence to answer the question of whether excessive media use leads to violent behavior. With the exception of excessive electronic game-playing among girls, this study found that electronic media are not thought to lead directly to real-life violence but to hostility and indirect violence.

Special Issue on Ubiquitous Games

Computer games have grown during recent years into a popular entertainment form with a wide variety of game types and a large consumer group spread across the world. An increasing number of people are playing electronic games, placing them among other favorite leisure activities. When surveyed on the most fun entertainment activities in the year 2000, 35 percent of all Americans identified computer and video games, where watching television fell second at 18 percent, followed by surfing the internet (15%), reading books (13 %) and going to the movies (11%) [8]. On-line gaming has offered people new means of having social interaction with people in faraway locations and let them access and play out fantasy-driven identities they are unable to manifest in the real world [12]. In 2002, the percentage of frequent game players that play games online rose to 31 percent up from 24 percent the year before [8]. Within the games, or through the use of websites based around the games, dedicated and long-lived communities have formed which have created new content, sometimes leading to commercial ventures. Electronic game play, however, is not limited to home use. Game parlors and LAN parties are becoming a popular means to play online games. Also, 37 percent of Americans who own game consoles (or computers used to play games), report that they also play games on mobile devices such as PDAs and mobile phones [8]. The popularity of computer games has thus not only made them important carriers of culture and trends but also a financially interesting area. They also function as a vehicle for the development and deployment of new hardware, software and user interface techniques. According to Interactive Digital Software Association (www.idsa.com), the computer and video game software industry in the US generated $6.35 billon in sales from 225 million units in 2001 (up 7.9% and 4.5% from 2000 respectively). In the same year in the US, movie box office grosses were $8.41 billion [8]. In the UK in the year 2000, the entertainment software industries grossed £300 million more than the UK cinema box offices and almost double that of home video rentals [3]. The world entertainment software market is estimated to be almost $18 billion and to grow to $26.7 billion by the year 2005 [3]. Computer games are some of the applications available to the general public that have the very highest demands on ease-of-use, engagement, and aesthetical appearance. These demands have made developers of computer games use the latest techniques within artificial intelligence, multimedia, computer graphics, computer simulation, and human-computer interaction to be competitive against other games developers. For example, recently IBM, Sony, and Toshiba have partnered on creation of the ‘Cell’. The Cell is a unique type of computer processor that contains several types of computing cores that are optimized for one type of task (e.g. communications, video processing). These processing cells can be interconnected to optimize a specific task [11]. This exciting research has not been driven for use in supercomputers, or high-end business PCs, but for use in the Playstation, a gaming console.

Sound effects controller

A self-contained audio effects processor has a handheld joystick from which both position-dependent and state-dependent effects are effectuated by means of motion of the joystick as well as by actuation of one or more buttons on the joystick. The position-dependent effects control the degree to which an effect is produced, e.g., the amount of intentional distortion applied to a signal, the amount of pitch-shift, etc.; these effects are produced primarily by selective directional motion of the joystick by the user. The state-dependent effects define the particular effect to be imparted to a signal being processed or produced in the processor, e.g., distortion, pitch-shift, etc.; these effects are selected largely by one more or buttons on the joystick which are preferably accessible from the same hand that grips the stick, thus providing a natural and convenient “feel” that many users have already become accustomed to from electronic game-playing. The audio effects processor of the present invention is self-contained, i.e., it includes a complete signal processor which can itself serve as a primary sound source or a modifier for sound signals applied to it. Thus, by itself, it provides an essentially complete sound generation/modification system readily operable by both amateur and professional alike.

Preference for violent electronic games, self-concept, and gender differences in young children.

Electronic game-playing has been linked to adjustment problems in player subgroups. This study examined relationships among time commitment, gender, preference for violent games, and self-concept in 364 fourth and fifth graders. Main effects were identified for game preference and gender, with stronger preference for violent games being associated with lower self-perceived behavioral conduct. Implications for future research are discussed.