Action video games as exemplary learning tool
Daphne Bavelier
Psychology & Education – Geneva Switzerland
Campus Biotech – Geneva Switzerland
Disclosure •  Scien-fic Advisory Board, Co-­‐founding Advisor, Akili Interac-ve, Boston MA •  Product Partner, E-­‐line Media Ac-on Video Games A tool to enhance learning and brain plas-city? BeGer Vision Image courtesy of Lydia Denworth Pwning Vision Pwn (Various pronunciations) – slang term derived from the verb
“own” – Act of dominating an opponent – used in on-line games
•  Contrast Sensitivity (Li et al., 2009, Nature Neuroscience)
Renjie Li Contrast sensitivity
(log units)
2
1.8
VGP(16)
nVGP(16)
**
1.6
***
1.4
**
1.2
*
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0
3
6
9
Spatial frequency (cyc/deg)
Effects can be trained
12
ACTION
Medal of Honor
UT
Call of Duty
SOCIAL
Tetris
the Sims
Restaurant Empire
Broad Transfer: Vision Improvement in
in Contrast
Improvement
Contrast Sensitivity
Sensitivity
(log
(log unit)
unit)
Long term reten-on following a 50 hours training study 0.2
0.2
0.15
0.15
0.1
0.1
Action
Action group
group
Control
Control group
group
0.05
0.05
00
-0.05
-0.05
55 days
days
after
after
training
training
55 months
months
after
after
training
training
>1
>1 year
year
after
after
training
training
Improvement in Contrast Sensi-vity at 6cy/degree as func-on of -me elapsed between training and test Amblyopia In collabora-on with Dennis Levi, UC Berkeley Mental Rota-on Mental Rota-on 1
2
3
4
Feng, PraG, Spence, 2007, Psych Science Action-Games: FPS
Pretesting
Training
10 hours
of in labs training
Post-testing
5 months later … 10 hours Ac-on Game Training Number of Correct Number
of
correct
Responses items
2 weeks Pretesting
Post-testing
Post-testing
5 months later … 10 hours CONTROL Game Training Number of Correct Number
of
correct
Responses items
2 weeks Pretesting
Post-testing
Post-testing
Mechanism of broad transfer •  Improvements go beyond the specifics of game play •  Why is it surprising? •  What are the mechanisms at play? Mechanism for broad transfer AGen-onal Control Test of Variables of AGen-on (T.O.V.A.®) http://www.tovatest.com/
- Target Frequent
- Target Infrequent
Dye, Green and Bavelier (2009) Current Directions in Psych. Science
Sustained Impulsivity Sustained Impulsivity Gamers are faster but no less accurate No issue with impulsivity or sustained aGen-on Dye, Green & Bavelier (2009). Current Dirs. Psych. Sci. Increased AGen-onal Control •  Test of Variables of AGen-on (T.O.V.A.®) •  Selec-ve AGen-on to Objects •  Selec-ve AGen-on in Space •  Selec-ve AGen-on in Time Green, C.S. and Bavelier, D. (2003) Nature Green, C.S. and Bavelier, D. (2006) Cogni-on Green, C.S. and Bavelier, D. (2006) JEP:HPP Hubert-­‐Wallander, Green & Bavelier (2010) Wire Cog.Sci Green, C.S. and Bavelier, D. (2012) Current Biology C. Shawn Green Right
Neural Mechanisms – Cue-Target
Trial Structure
AGen-onal Control Network System Cue processing
Julia Focker Stimulus processing
+
SOA: 4800 ms 7200 ms 9600 ms Target/ 12000 ms Noise Patch (100 ms) upwards
downwards
up/
down
Mechanisms: AGen-onal Control Network System AVGPs
NAVGPs
Conjunction
During s3mulus processing Better performance
Greater recruitment in AVGP
Mechanisms: AGen-onal Control Network System AVGPs
NAVGPs
Conjunction
Cue processing Video Game Players
Better performance
Greater recruitment in NVGP
The least recruitment during task preparation, the best performance
Mechanisms of Broad Transfer •  Ac-on game play enhances top-­‐down aGen-onal control – in young adults AND children (7-­‐17 years) •  VGPs are beGer at selec-ng relevant informa-on for task at hand and ignoring distrac-ons when task is difficult (Mishra, Zinni, Bavelier, & Hillyard, J. Neuro, 2011) •  Increase in signal-­‐to-­‐noise ra-o leads to more accurate inferences (Green, Pouget & Bavelier, 2010; Bejjanki, Zhang et al. 2014) Greater ability to learn task relevant sta3s3cs ‘Learning to learn’ -­‐> broad transfer ‘Learning to learn’ •  BeGer learners –  Perceptual Learning (Bejjanki, Zhang et al., 2014) –  Visuo-­‐motor control learning (Gozli, Bavelier & PraG, 2014) –  Cogni-ve Learning – Dual N-­‐back task (Zhang, Jaeggi, Buschkuehl – submiGed) –  Miniature language sta-s-cal learning (Newport, Aslin, Reeder, Altarelli, on-­‐going) •  Does it generalize to problem solving & thinking? •  Game factors that foster learning Games for Learning
Enabling factors:
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Variable entry learning (lots of entry levels - novice to expert)
Incremental learning (tune task to Ss; small learning steps, level of difficulty)
Reward (DA) - as opposed to punishment
Self-mastery and self-confidence (5HT) - desire to learn
Motivation & Arousal (Ach)
“Action” factors:
•  Pacing – work under time constraints
•  Load on divided attention: Dynamic display with many targets to attend to
•  Flexible shift of focus: Precise visuo-motor requirements in the
context of divided attention
•  Need for prediction and thus error monitoring
•  Rich environment that prevents automatization
•  …..
Technology and academic/work performance
Why so much confusion?
Technology and academic/work performance
More technology use,
Less homework time,
Less work drive,
Worse academic performance
Internet Usage in American UG: Landers and Lounsbury (2006-­‐N=117); Kirschner and Karpinski (2010-­‐N=219) ; Kubey, Lavin, and Barrows (2001-­‐N=572) but see Stollak, Vandenberg, Burklund, and Weiss (2011–N=2100) Causal study in boys 6-­‐9 years old -­‐ Weis and Cerankosky (2010). Psych Science. Technology and academic/work performance
Not all video games are
created alike
Not all technologies are
created alike
Pedro Cardoso-­‐Leite Action video game play enhances attentional control
Multi-media tasking often linked to poor attentional control
Cardoso-Leite, P., Kludt, R., Vignola, G., Ma, WJ., Green, CS & Bavelier, D. (2015), Attention,
Perception and Psychophysics
Playing online games
Using online social networks
Extreme online gaming - worse academic performance
Casual gaming - better math, reading and science scores
Casual online social networks – worse math, reading, science
DOES NOT DEMONSTRATE CAUSATION!
Posso A. (2016-­‐N=12’400), Internet Usage and Educa-onal Outcomes Among 15-­‐Year-­‐Old Australian Students ; Interna-onal Journal of Communica-on