Applied Cognitive Psychology - Leiden University (2019)

Lecture 5: Game-based cognitive training

60% americans play video games (~90% between ages of 2 and 17)

Potential: people already spend a lot of time gaming

- there could be benefits: training, simulation, increase behavior, increase motivation...

Different categories of games:

 Serious games: skills and knowledge based

- e.g.: simulator games --> pilots taught to fly

 Gamification: use of gaming elements in non-games

- e.g.: Wii Fit -- fitness exercise but it's almost like a game.

-e.g.2: Ticket vending machine in Moscow that gives a ticket if you do ten squats in front of the machine

Gaming elements:

-Reward system

• Fast and frequent feedback - form of operant conditioning
• Uncertainty - e.g.: gambling relies on uncertainty and that is what makes it addictive
• Reward scheduling: example: give reward in the beginning and later only 50% of the time, after that increase reward again
• Link rewards: e.g.: if you collect 17 coins, you can buy an item
• Anticipation: if you get 130 Magicarp, then you can trade it to one Gyarados in Pokemon Go

-Adaptivity

• Difficulty: it is better to start easy and then get more difficult, than start off difficult
• Time pressure
• Progress
• Flow: you loose sense of time and space because you are so engaged: happens when high challange is met with high skill

- Social factors

• competitive feeling
• social facilitation
• "your friend passed you on the leaderboard!"
• creates community and social support
• more engaging

-Context

• Story
• Immersion (e.g.: music)
• Identity (heart rate goes up when you can choose and see your character)

Cognitive enhancement: can videogames enhance cognitive functioning?

Two types of games that can enhance cognitive functioning

1. Training games:

Cognitive training: use it or lose it!

-Train working memory --> N-back Task

• shown a stream of letters and you have to indicate if it is the same you saw N places before
• but: most people stop halfway during the training because tasks are boring
• Training games = cognitive task + gamification (to make it more engaging)
• Nintendo Brain training/ brain age, Lumosity, Brain Gymmer
• If I get better at the N-back task form doing a lot of N-back task that doesn’t mean a lot. But if I get better at a very different task measuring a different cognitive ability, then there is transfer
• Transfer:
  • 1. Learning: learn to bike
  • 2. Near-transfer: get better at biking
  • 3. Transfer: get better at hockey, soccer --> overall physical fitness
  • 4.Far-transfer: changes in everyday life – e.g.: grades
• Design:

Experimental condition: Pre-test – Training – Post-test

Control condition: Pre-test --> training with different game --> post-test

Foroughi et al 2016:  IQ test --> brain-training --> IQ test

Message 1: "Game training increases IQ" --> participants who saw this message actually improved their IQ score – expectation and motivation is this powerful

Message 2: "need sona credits?" - much lower effect

Other research:

Brain training: no evidence of improvement compared to control group (BBC)

Lumosity (Olfers): Transfer for attention group, but does not impact daily life

2. Casual gaming: do gamers differ from non-gamers in their cognitive abilities?

Global flexibility: global shape (overall big picture) or local shape (detail)

This would show that video game players have faster reaction time and are more flexible

Casual gaming= ???+ gamification

Learning to learn:

• Knowledge
• Learning Strategies
• More cognitive resources to spare

Multitasking group: outperforms other groups in reaction time

Most entertainment games involve multitasking

Some games are not for everyone, difficult to target

Genetics:

Hidden differences: dopamine gene – high or low

If you have less dopamine availability in the PFC, you benefit more from the game

Compensation: those who are doing poorly get a bit of help

Magnification:  those who are doing well become a lot better