Gender differences and styles in the use of digital games

Abstract

This paper reports work in progress investigating gender differences and styles in the use of digital games amongst advanced level biology students. It is an elaboration on previous work exploring the relationship between cognitive style and academic performance in Maltese students taking biology at advanced level. In this previous work the cognitive style of 581 (212 male and 369 female) advanced biology students was correlated with their academic performance in five different subjects. Pearson's correlation showed that the wholist-analytic dimension, the verbalimagery dimension, and gender were not correlated. Regression analysis showed that none of the style dimension combinations had a significant effect on performance in any of the subjects. However, gender proved to be a stronger determinant of performance. These results were interpreted from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Numerous studies have consistently found gender differences in language and visuospatial skills. Female superiority is seen on tests of both receptive and productive language, and on more complex tasks such as making analogies and creative writing. Males have an advantage in visuospatial reasoning, being more adept at performing disembedding and internal spatial transformations. In view of these results and the constantly reported gender difference in the use of digital games, this paper describes the initial stage of an investigation about gender-determined propensities to digital media. Different studies claim that males dedicate more time than female students to playing digital games. A marked emphasis on the use of particular game genres by the different sexes is also reported. This reported phenomenon is investigated within the context of Maltese students taking advanced biology. Through a questionnaire, data were collected about the time students spend playing digital games, their preferred platform, and their preferred games. Data were analysed to establish gender differences in the time spent on playing digital games, the preferred platform, the most popular digital games amongst males and female students, and the preferred game genre. The results are interpreted from neurocognitve and psychosocial perspectives. Suggestions are made for possible integration of digital games in learning. Theoretical Background and Research RationaleThis paper reports work in progress investigating gender differences and styles in the use of digital games amongst advanced level biology students. It is an elaboration on previous work that explored the relationship between cognitive style and academic *Corresponding author.

Game object model version II: a theoretical framework for educational game development

“…In addition these authors show that males achieved better results than females in mental-rotation tests and for females there was no relationship between computer-game experience and mentalrotation ability. Investigating the difference and style of digital games by Maltese students Bonanno and Kommers (2005) found that females preferred puzzle, adventure, fighting, and managerial games and males preferred first person shooters, role playing, sports, and strategy games. These authors argue that such choices indicate the underlying gender-related neurocognitive processes that include perceptual speed, fine motor skills, and sequenced hand movements for females and the visuospatial ability (localization, orientation, and mental rotation), target-directed motor skills and greater risk taking in males.…”

Little Big Difference: Gender Aspects and Gender-Based Adaptation in Educational Games

“…Despite the popularity of computer games is rising in general, the majority of the medium's audience is still male [6]. As a consequence of that generally greater popularity of computer games amongst males, more males play and they play for longer periods [7,8].…”

“…This is due to differing interests and preferences, which are argued to be grounded already in infancy and socialization, but probably also because computer games are mostly designed by males, therefore, including essentially masculine characteristics, a high level of violence, and strong gender stereotypes [3]. While males have been found to prefer strategy, action, adventure, sports, and simulation games, particularly with violent content [16,18], females prefer puzzles, board games, quizzes, role-playing, and adventure, as well as educational games [5,7,14]. The main theme of computer games preferred by boys is contest between good and evil, competition, and winning, whereas girls favor storylines and exploration of game characters' personalities [17].…”

Game Use and School Life of Korean Adolescents: Gender Difference and Moderating Effects of Social Relationship

“…남학생은 여학생과 비교해 게임을 더 많이, 더 자주 이용할 뿐 아니라 상이한 게임유형을 선호한다 [10]. 또한 여성과 남성은 게임이용 태도도 매 우 상이한 것으로 나타난다 [11].…”