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silentmatt .
Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 305 Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 1:38 pm Post subject: On a Psychological Dissertation & 3-d Gaming. |
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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? _________________ 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." |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 1:57 pm Post subject: |
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Super Monkey Ball is EXACTLY what you want. _________________ “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!" |
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silentmatt .
Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 305 Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:03 pm Post subject: |
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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? _________________ 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." |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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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!" |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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dhex wrote: | long story short, games seem to make both men and women better at spacial reasoning, but women gain far more than men do. |
My wife gets exceptionally confused in 3D worlds. It's only been recently--after playing 3D games for about 7 years now--that she doesn't get lost instantly. I don't ever remember having more than a few hiccups with early 3D stuff though. _________________ “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!" |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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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 .
Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 305 Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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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. _________________ 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." |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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game suggestion: katamari with the music turned off. _________________
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Harveyjames the meteor kid
Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 5:58 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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Boss .
Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 3
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:45 am Post subject: |
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I like Super Monkey Ball very much. _________________ Thank you for spamming! |
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Swimmy .
Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:22 am Post subject: |
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Somebody ban Boss please.
kthxetc. _________________
"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin |
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ApM Admin Rockstar
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1210 Location: Ottawa, ON
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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Banned and neutered. |
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