Reiss et al (2008) used fMRI to examine differences in brain activation during video game play. The simplified video game used in the experiment was not explained, but all the participants figured out the object of the game, and seemed motivated to succeed. Greater activation in the "reward systems" of the brain, and areas associated with ( Read more... )

Professor of Gambling Studies Mark Griffith discussed his research into gender differences in video game preferences in a recent column for MCVUK (2007), a magazine on computer and video game marketing. Griffith stresses in the article that high realism and rapid advancement were important to both men and women in video games. Griffith also ( Read more... )

Last month, we looked at Feng et al's (2007) research that suggested that player first-person shooter video games could improve performance in a mental rotation task - especially in women. Ferguson et al (2007), also published last month, found that men's and women's abilities to draw "masculine" and "feminine" object exemplars seemed to vary ( Read more... )

Two weeks ago, we looked at how just ten hours on a video game helped women catch up in spatial performance ( 10/9/2007). Researchers at McGill University are developing games towards a different purpose: increasing self-esteem and reducing stress. Mark Baldwin's Self-Esteem Games attempt to condition players to focus on the positive about ( Read more... )

As discussed in previous posts, sex differences on the mental rotation task and other spatial measures are consistently shown to be "large and robust" (Martin et al, 2007). Research released this week suggests that these differences may be more malleable than previously speculated. Feng et al (2007) found that just 10 hours of training on a first ( Read more... )