Anatomy Shared Article Research

This blog exists for the Anatomy students at Tree of Life Christian School. We will be reading various scientific articles, summarizing our research, and then commenting on others' summaries. We hope to broaden our view of the current research surrounding the human body, and to help others see how truly amazing the design of the human body is.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Your Mind On Video Games

James Gee's, a professor of learning sciences at the University of Wisconsin, interest was piqued when he first played his son's game Pajama Sam and when he got The Adventures of the Time Machine. He began to sense that something interesting was going on inside his brain as he struggled with the puzzles in his game. "I hadnt done that kind of new learning since graduate school. You know, as you get older, you kind of rest on your laurels: You learn certain patterns, you know your field, and you get a lot of experience. But this requires you to think in a new way. I saw that the excitement of this is the challenge and the difficulty and the new learning. That's what makes it fun!"
Gee and other researchers have started researching how video games affect cognition. They have even gone as far as to say that gaming might be mentally enriching. They agree that gaming id addictive and have even started to prove how they are addictive. But they also have begun to recognize the cognitive benefits of video games such as pattern recognition, system thinking, even practice. This new research has even the idea that gaming could be exercising the mind the way physical activity exercises the body. Of course this greatly contriditcs the theory that gamers have Attention Deficit Dissorder and suggests that they have better focus, more patience, develop a willingness to delay gratification and prioritize scarce resources.
In the early 1990s, Richard Haier, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Irvine, tracked cerebral glucose metabolic rates in the brains of people who were playing Tetris. Glucose rates show how much energy the brain is using which shows how much work the brain is doing. A month later he tested the same people but found that their glucose levels had decreased. It appeared that they were so good that they barely had to work. Gee says this was because of the "regime of competence" principle which is something that is perfect fo the mind of an individual to accomplish. For instance schools use this principle: when work is too hard, students won't work, when it is too easy they get bored.
Gee theorizes that the way gamers explore the virtual world is exactly the sane way our brains explore the real world. He says "Basically, how we think is through running perceptual simulations in our heads that prepare us for the actions we're going to take. By modeling those simulations, video games externalize how the mind works." Most media does not apply the regime of competence principle but video games do. Even something as basic as Pong gets harder as the player improves. Gee's hypothesis, if prove true, leaves us with one question: Do the skills learned in the virtual world translate into the real one?

I think that Gee's theory is interesting and has at least one truth to it. I am sure that it would help with pattern recognition and solving them. I disagree that it does not cause attention problems. I know personally that video games cause people to focus less and become more distracted by flashy things. I also think it is unwise to be sitting around "exercising your mind" and not you physical body.

http://discovermagazine.com/2205/jul/brain-on-video-games/?searchterm=Video Games

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

This is a good article that steps out and tries to focus on the battle that parents face with their kids. This is that kids should be out doing some form of physical activity instead of staying inside all day, turning your brain into mush. I find it cool that Gee has been able to recognize that playing video games might be enriching to the mind. I give Gee a lot of credit by experimenting tests on people and see how the mind works. It sounds like playing too much video games can lead to lack of activity which is a downside.

Monday, April 09, 2007 5:26:00 PM  
Blogger Curtis said...

This is a great article for showing the good effects video games can have on kids. I agree that certain games can help improve the brain, possibly exercising it like you exercise your physical body. However I do not think this should take the place of physical activity at all. Too much gaming definitely has a downside. I agree with your opinion that A.D.D. can possibly result from video games. I think it just mainly depends on which video games you play and how often and long you play them.

Monday, April 09, 2007 6:50:00 PM  
Blogger bethann said...

I was wandering if anyone did tests on what video games do to peoples' minds. I do agree with him when he says that video games can help the mind like physical activity but I don't think it should take place of physical activity. I think that video games are better than watching tv because you are more active and some games require knowledge or higher thinking which can result in learning. I am not sure that people use what they do on video games to act upon in life because not everyone is effected by that. I think that it depends on what video games people play and how often they play it for it to effect them.

Monday, April 09, 2007 6:58:00 PM  

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