Effects of Prosocial,Neutral, and Violent Video Games on College Students' Affect

Recent research reveals that playing prosocial video games increases prosocial cognitions and helpful behaviors [Gentile el al., 2009; Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2009; 2010; 2011]. These results are consistent with social‐cognitive models of social behavior [e.g., the “General Learning Model,” Buckley and Anderson, 2006]. The social‐cognitive learning models suggest that in addition to influencing cognitions, media content may also influence affect. However, past studies on prosocial video games have failed to find a significant effect on affective measures [Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2010]. The present research examined the effects of prosocial, neutral, and violent video games on state hostility and positive affect. Also examined were moderating effects of trait aggressiveness, trait altruistic helping, and trait egoistic helping. Prosocial games reduced state hostility and increased positive state affect. Violent video games had the opposite effects. These effects were moderated by trait physical aggression. Altruistic participants reported relatively more positive affect and less state hostility. Egoistic participants reported relatively more aggravated and mean feelings. Aggr. Behav. 38:263–271, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

儿童公平行为的发展——来自博弈实验的证据

公平正义一直是人类不懈追求的目标,是心理学、经济学等多个学科共同关注的一个重要课题。发展心理学常采用故事法对儿童的公平认知进行研究,博弈范式的引入则为研究儿童的公平行为提供了新的方法和角度。该文主要介绍了独裁者博弈和最后通牒博弈中儿童公平行为的发展趋势,并对已有的矛盾性结论进行了原因分析,探讨了公平行为的内团体偏差效应、公平的本质是意图公平还是结果公平、以及心理理论与公平行为的关系等问题。最后,该文指出今后对儿童公平行为的研究应充分考虑社会情境与社会认知能力的影响。     

网络游戏动机的种类、影响及其作用机制

从动机的角度理解网络游戏日益受到研究者的关注。网络游戏动机的研究主要包括：(1)网络游戏动机的种类。在诸多游戏动机中, 乐趣是研究者最为关注的, 其次包括沉醉、社交、逃避、好奇和竞争等。(2)网络游戏动机的影响因素, 包括人格和网络游戏中的社会和个人互动等。(3)动机对网络游戏意向和行为的影响, 这些动机包括乐趣、社交和成就等。(4)网络游戏动机的影响机制, 包括网络游戏动机的中介作用、网络游戏动机与网络游戏行为意向之间的中介变量和调节变量。未来的研究应当关注网络游戏动机种类的分化与整合, 重视从发展心理学、动机的形成和发展过程以及情绪的角度来探讨网络游戏的动机。     

The effect of action video game playing on sensorimotor learning: Evidence from a movement tracking task

Research on the impact of action video game playing has revealed performance advantages on a wide range of perceptual and cognitive tasks. It is not known, however, if playing such games confers similar advantages in sensorimotor learning. To address this issue, the present study used a manual motion-tracking task that allowed for a sensitive measure of both accuracy and improvement over time. When the target motion pattern was consistent over trials, gamers improved with a faster rate and eventually outperformed non-gamers. Performance between the two groups, however, did not differ initially. When the target motion was inconsistent, changing on every trial, results revealed no difference between gamers and non-gamers. Together, our findings suggest that video game playing confers no reliable benefit in sensorimotor control, but it does enhance sensorimotor learning, enabling superior performance in tasks with consistent and predictable structure.     

Video game preferences and their relation to career interests

The current study used an mTURK sample to determine if there is a relation between video game preferences and career interests. Previous research has found that individual (e.g., personality) differences influence gaming preferences (Zammitto, 2001) and we sought to extend these findings to the domain of career interests. In addition, we examined the potential moderating role of gender. Since researchers have found that gender disparities in spatial attention can be reduced by playing certain types of video games (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007), and it has been demonstrated that spatial ability is an important predictor of success in careers where women are typically underrepresented (Blickenstaff, 2005), we predicted that women with a preference for these types of games (versus a general preference) may have more interest in these careers. We found that gaming motivations were differentially associated with career interests. In addition, gender was found to significantly moderate a number of these relations, such that the association between gaming tendencies and career interests was stronger for women than for men. Findings from the current study should help guide future research that aims to increase the representation of women in STEM careers.     

The Real Value of Fake Teams: An Ethical Defense of Fantasy Sports

ABSTRACT

In the only two articles on the topic of which I am aware, Chad Carlson and Scott Aikin have leveled three objections against fantasy sports—namely, that participation in fantasy sports elicits (1) a distortion of the virtue of loyalty, (2) an ethically problematic failure of understanding, either of morally valuable parts of games and/or of games as coherent wholes, and (3) a failure to respect the game in that participants desire to see play that is good for their fantasy team rather than play that makes for a good game. This paper defends fantasy sports against those objections. I argue that once the ethical values underlying objections (1) and (2) are identified and plausibly interpreted, we see that fantasy sports pose no threat to those values, but rather provide participants with an alternative, and in some cases superior, means of realizing the relevant values. Participation in fantasy sports is in unavoidable tension with the obligation at work in objection (3), but that obligation is so weak that its failure is easily compensated for by the realization of an ethical value that is central to fantasy sports, yet has been overlooked by both critics—namely, human flourishing in the form of the emotional and intellectual virtues which fantasy sports challenge participants to develop and display.     

Too Much Playing Games – A Response to Kretchmar

ABSTRACT

Scott Kretchmar recently put forth a new definition of what it is to play a game. Unfortunately, it must be rejected. In this paper, I will show that this new definition is far too broad by discussing an activity that is not an instance of playing a game but is wrongfully ruled as one on this new definition.     

Internet Addiction Disorder: Internet Gaming Disorder in a Nonclinical Sample Of Moba And Mmorpg Videoplayers

This study concentrates on two kinds of video games, Massive Online Battle Arena and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game, and examines the scores obtained by the subjects in the sample. Score analyses pointed out that they do not exceed the respective cutoff scores for each scale. The sample was divided into three clusters to differentiate three kinds of users: nonproblematic, problematic, and “addicted” players. The study highlights that the variable “video game typology” relates to some personality traits. Players who excessively use them tend to experience relatively more negative emotions (anxiety and depression), avoid socioemotional involvement, and report bizarre and culturally incongruent thoughts (accompanied by the respective behavioral displays).