As part of a panel on the "Psycho/biological considerations for human interactions within video games" at NCA 2014, Dr Nick Bowman presents a summary of his work on task demand and video games.
2. PANEL DESCRIPTION
The current panel explores the general utility of psycho/biological
variables by reviewing relevant theories, hypothetical applications,
and contemporary findings surrounding video game research.
Often, media research relies heavily on social learning theories.
Although useful, the explanatory power of nurture based models is
limited. However, some psychological and/or biological perspectives
provide a human-centric understanding of effects that accounts for
individual differences and processing. Thus, the current panel
illustrates how psycho/biological considerations may yield new
understanding of existing relationships and illuminate fresh avenues
for future work.
3. PROCESS > CONTENT
Response
Stimulus-Response models consider the
Content as key to media effects…
…but they fail to
consider the role
of Processing in
the media effects
equation.
Stimulus
Organism
4. PROCESS > CONTENT
Communication is a “process by
which we stimulate meaning in
the minds of others.”
(McCroskey & Richmond, 1996)
5. S O R
VIDEO games
• Narrative worlds
Video GAMES
• Ludic systems
7. VIDEO GAMES ARE DEMANDING
• Video games are inherently
unfinished texts requiring
players to exert agency
• “…in a video game, if somebody
is crying it’s likely because the
player both caused it and can
solve it.”
(Oliver et al., in press)
What happens next?
That’s up to you.
8. VIDEO GAMES ARE DEMANDING
• Interactivity is Demanding
– Cognitively demanding
– Behaviorally demanding
– Affectively demanding
– Socially demanding?
LC4MP
9. COGNITIVE DEMAND
• In video game,
performance is based
on our ability to control
the interactivity (form +
content)
• One such control is our
cognitive abilities
(a few) cognitive skills
found to correlate w/
game performance:
2D mental rotation
3D mental rotation
Moving targeting
Fixed targeting
Eye-hand coordination
Fine motor skill
Word completion
11. AFFECTIVE DEMAND
“Lugo: You’re f*cking kidding,
right? That’s white phosphorous!
Walker: Yeah I know what it is…
Lugo: You’ve seen what the sh*t
does! You know we can’t …
Adams: ...We might not have a
choice Lugo…
Lugo: There’s always a choice!”
12. AFFECTIVE DEMAND
“When players recall
meaningful gaming
experiences, they
reported on how those
storylines helped them
feel a sense of
poignancy and
insightfulness as they
were able to relate to
the story content”
14. BEHAVIORAL
DEMAND Training
n = 110 (63 ♀)
n = 57 n = 53
Mission Roaming
Walkers relied on
their dominant
habit, while non-walkers
let the game
guide them!
15. SOCIAL DEMAND
• Gaming and sociability
– Games as “third spaces of
discourse”
– Extraverts prefer gaming
– Gaming fosters relatedness
– Interdependence (from
gaming) fosters transactive
memory
16. SOCIAL DEMAND
When playing in front
of an audience, easy
games became easier…
…but hard games
didn’t change at all!
18. FOR MORE INFORMATION
http://comm.wvu.edu
/fs/research/lab
Nick Bowman, Ph.D. [CV]
Twitter (@bowmanspartan)
Skype (nicholasdbowman)
nicholas.bowman@mail.wvu.edu
Interaction Lab
(#ixlab)
Notes de l'éditeur
I’d like to share a slide from my media effects courses – one that shows us how we might better understand the way in which media content – the Stimuli – might eventually trigger a human Response. Often times, we study media content because we are deeply concerned about how on-screen content might be expected to impact the frail minds of audiences (such as children, in this example). Such a focus is a noble and a reasonable one, but it doesn’t consider one incredibly important element for the research model: the organism.
Looking to my communication studies roots, I’m reminded of the very simple definition of the communication process offered by the late James McCroskey – communication, to him and Virginia Richmond (his partner and research associate) was a process of stimulating meaning in the mind of another. That is, a “thing” was communicated whenever meaning was created in the mind of the receiver of a message. Sender characteristics, channel characteristics, and even message characteristics can of course impact this “stimulation” process, but it wasn’t until the receiver of a message “assembled all of the bits of the thing” that we could conclude that a communication had occurred.
As media scholars, it is paramount that we understand the same goes for audiences – from passive movie audiences to co-creators of video game violence: the moral panic is not about the content, but about the “nexus of moderating and mediating factors” (to borrow from Joseph Klapper) that lead to media’s potentially profound impact on us all.
Another incredibly important aspect of video games: They are inherently unfinished texts. That is, games are created in order to be completed by the gamer, not simply consumed by a (passive) audience member. In this process, gamers take control over the narrative and the on-screen action, writing each page of the game with each button press and action.
Procedure
Participants (N = 110, 63 females, M age = 20.5, SD = 1.62, n = 62 upper-level undergraduates) were recruited to participate in a study on playing video games from a large, mid-Atlantic university, and were given course credit for participation. After obtaining informed consent, participants were randomly assigned to play a custom-made version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA; Rockstar Games, 2004) with either a closed-ended waypoint mission or an open-ended freeplay mission. Prior to gameplay, participants were asked to complete a short demographic profile along with measures of self-reported video game play and physical activity lifestyle habits. They were also given a tutorial with the video game in the form of a custom-created level that allowed them to practice walking, bicycling, and driving controls prior to the experimental game session (these being the three transportation choices available in-game). Following gameplay, participants were asked questions regarding body shame and presence. Experimental sessions lasted between 20 and 30 minutes in total, with 10 to 15 minutes of this devoted to gameplay.