19th August, 2008: Late Night Round-Up
So once again, I am at the mercy of this vicious cycle:
Oh, PHD Comics, how do you know me so well? Indeed, I also just updated my ‘about‘ info with some PHD Comics action. It’s true, you know.
Anyway, so I suppose this is the part of the model where I’m ‘goofing around a little’. This also meant I jumped on the Face Your Manga bandwagon that seems to be travelling around Twitter. Here’s me as a result of 10 minutes of procrastination earlier:
Stuff that actually matters:
Anyway – other than that, I was interested to read this press release just now that came out of the American Psychological Association’s 116th Annual Convention, which was held over the past few days. Building on existing work on the positive benefits of games in terms of improving manual dexterity and problem solving skills, it covers a study researching the benefits for surgeons:
A study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors compared to those who did not play video games, said Gentile.
A second study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons (82 percent men; 18 percent women) also showed that surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster at their first attempt and across all 10 trials than the surgeons who did not the play video games first.
I was also particularly interested in the summary of this study:
In one paper, Fordham University psychologist Fran C. Blumberg, PhD, and Sabrina S. Ismailer, MSED, examined 122 fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders’ problem-solving behavior while playing a video game that they had never seen before to show that playing video games can improve cognitive and perceptual skills.
As the children played the game, they were asked to think aloud for 20 minutes. Researchers assessed their problem-solving ability by examining the types of cognitive, goal-oriented, game-oriented, emotional and contextual statements they made.
“Younger children seem more interested in setting short-term goals for their learning in the game compared to older children who are more interested in simply playing and the actions of playing,” said Blumberg. “Thus, younger children may show a greater need for focusing on small aspects of a given problem than older children, even in a leisure-based situation such as playing video games.”
[Emphasis mine. Note to self, read said paper. Also, write something more about this soon.]
Anyway, the story seems to be being picked up at various places around the internet too. Here’s a snippet:
From: Video Games Learning Tools? [courant.com]
Parents, don’t put away those video games just yet — today’s gamer may be tomorrow’s top surgeon.
Researchers gathering in Boston for the American Psychological Association convention detailed a series of studies suggesting that video games can be powerful learning tools — from increasing the problem solving potential of younger students to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons.
One study even looked at whether playing “World of Warcraft,” the world’s biggest multiplayer online game, can improve scientific thinking.
The conclusion? Certain types of video games can have benefits beyond the virtual thrills of blowing up demons or shooting aliens.
Always good news, of course.
Posted at 1:25 am | View Comments
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