By:
Lydia Denworth
Published:
Scientific American Mind; January / February 2013
To access the article, copy paste the following:
http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/scientificamericanmind0113-28
To access the article, copy paste the following:
http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/scientificamericanmind0113-28
Level
of Difficulty: ****
BEFORE
YOU READ
·
Have you ever played video
games?
·
What kind of games have you
played?
·
Do you feel playing these games
provides certain advantages? If so what?
·
Do you think there are down
sides of these games? If so what?
If
you have never played these games, it would be a good idea to take a look at
one.
QUESTIONS
1. Contrary to popular belief, playing some video games can be a bonus
because……………………………………………………………………………………………….
2. When Obama requested the students he was addressing to focus on
games that teach them something, he didn’t realize that this is in fact
happening because ……………………………………….
3. Read Bavelier’s useful field view study carefully. This test proves
that those who ………………….have better spatial recognition.
4. Read the study involving 8 action gamers and 8 non gamers. How do we
know that the success of the gamers wasn’t just a freak incident?
5. Read the example involving Medal of Honor. The improvement
registered by Medal of Honor players was probably down to
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
6. Did the experiments concerning the effects of crowding prove or
disprove Bavelier’s initial hypothesis concerning the outcome? Why?
7. The result of the experiment conducted by Roger Li and Dennis Levi
proved that ……………………………………………………………………………… (you will need to tweak the text)
8. Read the experiment conducted by Ian Spence and his colleagues to
the end. Now decide whether the following are true or false. If false, say why.
·
Men do better than women on
tasks such as field view and mental rotation because they are good at science
and maths.
·
The disparity in spatial
attention along gender lines is partly down to the fact that men play video
games.
·
When given the opportunity to
practice, both males and females improved.
9. Circle the correct answer: It
was the similarity / difference between the game Halo / Word Womp and the essay
on Mount Helen that indicated greater success / less success on the essay in
the experiment at Oregon State University.
10. The mental skill developed by the above game that led to a better
understanding of plate tectonics was …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
11. Why exactly were the gamers quicker off the mark when indicating the
direction the dot was moving and when filtering out white noise?
12. The study involving laboroscopic surgeons and later airplane and
drone pilots proved that they excelled thanks to
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
13. What interesting parallelism did Gentile discover between children
addicted to games and gamblers? Use your own words.
14. Why exactly do these video games make gamers more aggressive?
15. Read about the parallels drawn between aggression and gaming and
select the best answer:
·
The greater the gaming the
greater the teenage aggression
·
Gaming is one of the predictors
of violent crime
·
Disturbed individuals will turn
to violent crime with or without gaming
·
All of the above
·
None of the above
16. Bavelier’s version of a video game involving saving animals provides
the double bonus of…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
17. The release of dopamine while playing video games is at the basis of
the addictive quality of these games because
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….
18. In a sense, scientists and
expert game designers can’t avoid designing non violent video games because
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
WRITING TASK
Write an essay discussing the advantages and disadvantages of
violent video games. Use the points below – out of the text – what you have
gleaned from the text and personal experience.
In your introduction
Introduce video games as a pass time and move on to violent ones.
End with a thesis statement indicating you will be discussing the advantages
and disadvantages
The Advantages
·
Improve aspects of vision
·
Improve attention
·
Improve spatial reasoning
·
Improve decision making
·
Improve lazy eye in adults
The Disadvantages
·
Game addiction
·
An increase in aggression
·
Regular exposure a trigger for
aggression
In your conclusion
Suggest non violent games that serve the same purpose. Refer to the
text.
BRAIN CHANGING GAMES KEY
AND TEACHER’S NOTES
This highly topical text
addresses an issue students will be very familiar with. However, as you will
see in the text, violent video games do pose a lot of problems besides having
undeniable advantages. It might be a good idea to bring one of them to class
and demonstrate for those who don’t know the games. It might also be a good
idea to discuss the recent shout outs all of whose perpetrators played violent
video games.
1. Aspects of vision, attention, spatial reasoning and decision making
would improve for the better.
2. Gamers learn to learn
3. Play action packed first person video games
4. The action game players were not more attentive from the start;
experience with the game is what improves attention
5. The simultaneous demands of action games
6. Prove; non gamers who trained on an action game , Unreal Tournament
2004, improved on this test of visual acuity
7. Playing video games might even ameliorate lazy eye
8. F, T, T
9. Similarity, Halo, greater success; OR: difference, Word Womp, less
success
10. Spatial reasoning
11. Gamers are better at making a decision when a rapid response is important;
OR they are faster at assessing visual and auditory input
12. Use of the prefrontal cortex
13. Possible answer: The percentage of children addicted to games is
higher than that for casino gamblers
14. Because even though you know it is just a game, your body dumps
stress hormones into your blood stream
that get you prepared to fight
15. All of the above
16. Being non violent and training the brain just as effectively
17. It encourages continued play
18. Given that games are here to stay, getting the best out of them
could be an epic win for everyone
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