Research

A Duke University project has designed a virtual crack house as a way of helping addicts overcome their addiction. The sim is designed to actually place addicts in tempting situations in order to experience cravings. These cravings are learned behavior which the game aims to erode. Designer of the sim, Professor Zach Rosenthal explained the details of the learned behavior and how the sim effects it:

When temptation arises [in game]… the patient rates his or her own craving level. But the magic moment comes when a high craving subsides, which it does, because the patient won’t be taking drugs in the virtual world. The therapist tries to tie that moment, when a craving subsides, to a trigger, like a tone. So the addict eventually learns to associate the sound with the sensation of decreased craving… For example, if an addict ends up in a [real world] tempting situation, he or she can take out the phone donated by the program, dial a number and hear that tone. The addict remembers the sound learned in the therapy session, and the craving should subside.

A now clean long time addict who has been through the program praised it openly by saying:

The program has done wonders for me. Although I have fallen since I came out of the program, I am clean and have been clean for a good while.

The sim has been modeled on real world environments from pictures that were taken when the Durham, NC Police Department took the team to known drug locations.

via Game Politics

A small scale study at a primary school in the town of Dundee, Scotland has uncovered some very promising findings. The study set out to test the benefits of using More Brain Training for the Nintendo DS as an educational aid.

The students were separated into 3 groups of 30 for 10 weeks, one that played More Brain Training for 15 minutes each morning, one used “Brain Gym” (physical exercises meant to stimulate brain activity) and the last group did nothing.

A math test given to students at the start and end of the study showed that the students who used More Brain Training improved their scores by a greater margin than those who didn’t. Interestingly, students who performed poorly on the first test saw particularly impressive gains over the course of the study - one special-needs pupil raised his score from 25/100 to 68/100.

Derek Robertson, from Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) speaks about the project he helped design:

The results of this small-scale Dr Kawashima project have shown how a targeted and managed use of such a game can help to enhance pupil numeracy skills and classroom behaviour.

There was also a noticeable impact on behaviour and levels of concentration throughout the school day, with the children becoming more self-confident.

It had a real calming effect on children in the class. In fact I have never before seen such gains across the board.

BBC via Kotaku

McGill University researchers have released a study that shows playing video games reduces production of the stress-related hormone called cortisol. Test subjects that played a game called Matrix (no, not The Matrix) not only showed lower stress levels, but also a 17-percent reduction in cortisol production. Prof. Baldwin who headed the study had this to say about the findings:

“There are many possible applications for this kind of game, from helping people cope with the social anxiety of public speaking or meeting new people, to helping athletes concentrate more on their game rather than worrying about performing poorly.”

It’s lucky they didn’t do this study using Ninja Gaiden, or I’m pretty sure their hypothesis would have been wrong.

via Gaming Today

Three UC Irvine students have teamed up with two students from Dartmouth College to win IBM’s Cell Broadband Engine Professor University Challenge, using three PlayStation 3 consoles to recreate the visual processing area of the brain.

Prior attempts of solving the problem with standard CPUs have been hindered by insufficient processing power, however the UCI/Dartmouth team’s solution of three PS3 consoles and a PC is capable of recognizing an object in just one second.

According to Jayram Moorkanikara from the UC Irvine team, their work has several applications, and is just getting started:

We have just started looking into the exciting area of hardware realization of brain algorithms. More such algorithms and applications will be developed and used in smart, self-guided cars, computers and robots,

New University Online via Kotaku

New research from Nottingham Trent University shows that the stereotypical image of online gamers as anti-social loners is no longer relevant. The study, Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, looked at almost 1,000 gamers from across the world, and found that more than half of MMO players meet up with other players in real-life - and one in ten go on to develop physical relationships with other players.

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