Are Video Games good or bad for you?

Are Video Games Really That Bad?

The following documentary explores research done that looks at both the negative and positive influences that video games may have.

Out of the six researches mentioned below and in the documentary, choose two (one negative and one positive) and write up a Research Case Study sheet.

Use the NEAT-O approach to evaluate the research.

Research

Research One: The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence (Carnagey, Anderson, Bushman)

Article

Video Games Desensitize to Real Violence

New research has found exposure to violent video games can desensitize individuals to real-life violence. According to the investigators, this is first documented finding that video-games can alter physiological responses typically aroused by real violence. Past research revealed that exposure to violent video games increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal and aggressive behaviors, and decreases helpful behaviors.

psychcentral.com

Research (read the Abstract)

Research Two: Does Media Violence Predict Societal Violence? It Depends on What You Look at and When (Ferguson)

Article:

New Study Finds Violent Games Might Actually Curb Real-World Violence

The results are in from the world's first long-term study into the consumption of violent media and its effect on real-life acts of violence. (If you're a member of the Australian Christian Lobby, you may want to sit down for a minute.) Not only did the study find zero link...

www.kotaku.com.au

Press Release:

No link found between movie, video game violence and societal violence

Washington, DC (November 5, 2014) - Since the 1920s, scholars and politicians have blamed violence in movies and other media as a contributing factor to rising violence in society. Recently the responses to mass shootings in Aurora, CO and at Sandy Hook Elementary followed this theme as media consumption came into the equation.

www.eurekalert.org

Research:

Research Three: Competence-Impeding Electronic Games and Players’ Aggressive Feelings, Thoughts, and Behaviours (Przybylski)

Article:

Video gamers' aggression linked to frustration, not violent content

The disturbing imagery or violent storylines of videos games like World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto are often accused of fostering feelings of aggression in players. But a new study shows hostile behavior is linked to gamers' experiences of failure and frustration during play-not to a game's violent content.

www.rochester.edu

Research:

Research Four: Increasing Speed of Processing With Action Video Games (Bavelier)

Article:

Playing action video games can boost learning

A new study shows for the first time that playing action video games improves not just the skills taught in the game, but learning capabilities more generally. "Prior research by our group and others has shown that action gamers excel at many tasks.

www.rochester.edu

Research:

Research Five: Video game training enhances cognitive control in older adults (Gazzaley)

Article:

Gaming improves multitasking skills

Sixty-five-year-old Ann Linsey was starting to worry about how easily she got distracted from whatever she was doing. "As you get older, it seems harder to do more things at once," she says. Then she enrolled in a study to test whether playing a game could improve fading cognitive skills in older people - and was impressed by what it did for her.

www.nature.com

Research:

Worksheets / Resources