The Gamer's Quarter

silentmatt

I am going into my final year of undergrad (which is going to be hell, for real) and am starting work on my "huge! important! stressful!" dissertation project for my Psychology degree. After a few brainstorming sessions with my supervisor (and many, many ideas later), he agreed to work with me on one that involves videogames and intelligence testing. Which, I'd imagine, would be of interest to some of you (plus, there is a question embedded below!)

So, some background information:

What I am going to be looking at is the influence of videogames as unintentional training grounds for fluid intelligence tests (which mostly deal with mental rotation tasks). The underlying assumption is that people who often play videogames become more comfortable with the manipulation of 3-d objects on a 2-d surface (i.e. the computer or television screen) and this, in turn, will aid them on intelligence tests. Further, there should be a cohort effect between generations as younger people will be more comfortable with doing this than older people.

I will be testing this via 3 experiments:

Study 1 will be merely correlating results on a mental rotation test with frequency of videogame usage (with independent variables being frequency and genres of games played, since, as you all know, same genres are "more 3-d" than others).

Study 2 will use multiple cohorts (university students, "middle aged" and "seniors") to determine how age and usage might interact.

Study 3 will be based upon training - basically exploring how a training situation with a three dimensional videogame might compare with a) a traditional training situation (done via paper and pencil) and b) no additional training.

So, yeah. Lots of work ahead. But, what I am wondering is: any of you have any suggestions for a game that can be used in the training sessions? It (obviously) has to involve 3-d interactions and should be something that can be quantifiable or scored. Plus, it has to be intuitive enough that both university students and seniors can understand and interact with successfully. So far, possible examples might be Kororinpa/Marble Madness (with major parameter being time), Cube/Crush (possibly too complicated)... It would be great if it would be something that could be played on: PC, Wii (including any homebrew), PS3, PSP (including any homebrew) or (if necessary) DS - but I don't actually have a DS so, yeah. That is a last resort. Low-end PC would probably be best as I could train multiple people simultaneously.

I know it is a kind of bizarre request but hey, isn't that what the Gamer's Quarter is all about?
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"Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie était un festin où s'ouvraient tous les coeurs, où tous les vins coulaient."

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Super Monkey Ball is EXACTLY what you want.
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silentmatt · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:03 pm Post subject:

Really? The GameCube one, right?

I never actually played it but I will take a look at it soon. Any particular level I should be checking out?
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PSN: Twitch_City ||| Wii: 8083 5371 5767 6700
"Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie était un festin où s'ouvraient tous les coeurs, où tous les vins coulaient."

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Get the first game and just use the Arcade mode. The best part of the game for this test is that it's easy for both experienced gamers to pick up and non-gamers. Kororinpa is a better game to play, but Monkey Ball is probably a better game for this kind of experiment.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

dhex · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:16 pm Post subject:

i knew i'd read something vaguely related to this last week.

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9762790&CFID=22901619&CFTOKEN=682520

long story short, games seem to make both men and women better at spacial reasoning, but women gain far more than men do.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dhex · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:21 pm Post subject:

i mean i suck at third person over the shoulder type control schemes personally but overall the idea that:

a) there's a biological basis for the baseline in a spacial reasoning skill aptitude
b) this can be trained by environment and activities

is both interesting and really boring. it's all about distributions, yo.

actually if people understood statistics most of the sociobiology stuff never really would have been that big a deal outside of really hardcore blank slaters. (i.e. maoists)
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silentmatt · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:31 pm Post subject:

More indepth reply tomorrow but, for now, just wanted to point out one thing: this study is MUCH LESS about being a pseudo crap "videogames make you smarter" sociopsychobiological demonstration (which, I know, are pretty ridiculous).

The aim of the study is actually more to point out flaws (or inherent biases) in using mental rotation tasks as foundations for fluid intelligence testing. So, in essence, the final paper will be more psychometrics orientated (and more critique than congratulatory) than the kind of paper dhex is talking about.

I've been reading a lot of papers recently and have come across quite a few studies which looked at FPS enhancing ones ability for selective attention (or being able to concentrate on multiple focal areas) due to their basic "twitch factor". Which, is fairly interesting, but deviates enough from what I am looking at to warrant being a completely different field of study.

Of course, for the experiments, I will have to randomize the samplings, cross-balancing for gender. So, I presume, at the end of the day... we will have some sex issues to investigate too.
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PSN: Twitch_City ||| Wii: 8083 5371 5767 6700
"Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie était un festin où s'ouvraient tous les coeurs, où tous les vins coulaient."

dhex · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:32 pm Post subject:

game suggestion: katamari with the music turned off.
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Super Monkey Ball's not that great a choice - the camera is very idiosyncractic and successful playing relyies on proper control over it. There's actually a lot to get your head around in that game. My sister can't play it. I suggest Kororinpa instead. Or, you know, something 2D.

Boss · . Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 3

I like Super Monkey Ball very much. Surprised

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Swimmy · . Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA

Somebody ban Boss please.

kthxetc.
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ApM · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:02 pm Post subject:

Banned and neutered.