The effect of video games on positive and negative cognitions

Mariano, Tailson Evangelista; Gouveia, Valdiney Velôso; Pimentel, Carlos Eduardo

doi:10.18256/2175-5027.2020.v12i1.3172

“…Besides video games with prosocial content, other laboratory studies have documented that shortterm violent video game play increased aggressive behavioral outcomes (Groves et al, 2019;Drummond et al, 2021) via habituation (Diaz et al, 2016), increased negative cognition (Mariano et al, 2020), and sympathetic nervous system activation (Gentile et al, 2017). For example, in Tian et al's (2019) study, participants played one of two commercial video games (containing violent or neutral content) for 30 minutes in the laboratory setting.…”

Section: Laboratory Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Video Games Should Not Be Studied as Media That Only Passively Transmit Social Information

Qiu,

Zhang

2024

Preprint

0

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There is a close connection between video games and social life, and researchers are interested in whether and how video games shape aggression and prosocial behaviors. However, there are great inconsistencies across studies on this topic. These mixed results may be due in part to a focus on learning models that were relevant in research on traditional media like television but are less useful in research on video games. Unlike other media, video games are characterized by frequent game-player interactions and immediate feedback, and there is evidence that in-game rewards and punishments can shape aggressive or prosocial behavior inside and outside the game. We argue that reinforcement learning may help us to understand the effects of video games on aggressive and prosocial behaviors, and propose a conceptual model based on this argument.

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“…Video games have become popular as a form of entertainment [ 1 ]. The General Aggression Model [ 2 ] and the General Learning Model [ 3 ] suggest that violent content in video games influences aggressive cognition [ 4 , 5 ] and negative emotions [ 6 , 7 ], leading to aggressive behaviors [ 8 , 9 ]. However, individuals passively receive content delivered by the game and actively invest cognitive resources while playing video games, potentially affecting social behaviors in the short term.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Between Cognitive Resource Consumption During Gameplay and Postgame Aggressive Behaviors: Between-Subjects Experiment

Teng,

Zhu,

Zhang

et al. 2023

JMIR Serious Games

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Background The question of how video games can shape aggressive behaviors has been a focus for many researchers. Previous research has focused on how violent video game content leads to postgame aggressive behaviors. However, video games not only convey violence or prosocial content to players but also require cognitive effort from individuals. Since human cognitive resources are limited, consuming more cognitive resources in a game leads to less cognitive resources to suppress aggressive impulses. Therefore, the depletion of cognitive resources from playing video games may also lead to changes in postgame aggressive behaviors. Objective This study aimed to examine the relationship between cognitive resources consumed in video games and postgame aggressive behaviors. Methods A total of 60 participants (age: mean 20.22; range 18-24 y) were randomly assigned to either the high-load group or the low-load group. Participants from both groups played a video game centered around college life. In the low-load group, participants followed the gameplay instructions to complete it. In the high-load group, participants were given an extra digital memory task to complete while playing the game. Participants in both groups played the video game for about 25 minutes. A maze selection task was then conducted to measure the participants’ helping and hurting behaviors. Results The independent samples 2-tailed t tests showed that the high-load group had significantly higher hurting scores (mean 3.13, SD 2.47) than the low-load group (mean 1.90, SD 2.12; t58=−2.07, P=.04; Cohen d=−0.535), whereas helping behaviors were not significantly affected (t58=1.52, P=.13; Cohen d=0.393). Conclusions As more cognitive resources are consumed in a video game, more hurting behaviors are exhibited after the game. This finding proposes an alternative route by which video games impact aggressive behaviors, adding to previous theories and raising concerns about the popularity of cognitive training games.

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Video Game Feedback Learning and Aggressive or Prosocial Effects

Qiu,

Zhang

2024

Social Science Computer Review

0

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There is a close connection between video games and social life, and researchers are interested in whether and how video games shape aggression and prosocial behaviors. However, there are great inconsistencies across studies on this topic. These mixed results may be due in part to a focus on learning models that were relevant in research on traditional media like television but are less useful in research on video games. Unlike other media, video games are characterized by frequent game-player interactions and immediate feedback, and there is evidence that in-game rewards and punishments can shape aggressive or prosocial behavior inside and outside the game. We argue that reinforcement learning may help us to understand the effects of video games on aggressive and prosocial behaviors, and propose a conceptual model based on this argument.

show abstract

The effect of video games on positive and negative cognitions

Cited by 4 publications

References 23 publications

Video Games Should Not Be Studied as Media That Only Passively Transmit Social Information

Video Games Should Not Be Studied as Media That Only Passively Transmit Social Information

The Relationship Between Cognitive Resource Consumption During Gameplay and Postgame Aggressive Behaviors: Between-Subjects Experiment

Video Game Feedback Learning and Aggressive or Prosocial Effects

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