Video Game Reward

[differenceblog]

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

Comments

[epi_lj]

And to what degree could this be a chicken/egg situation? (i.e. Do men play video games more than women because they get greater reward from them, or do men get greater reward from video games because they've played them a lot more and thus built up strong positive associations with video game success or a stronger element of video game mastery as part of their self-image?)

[astrogeek01]

Oh sure, say what I was gonna say. ;)

I find that their "territorial" comments are pretty distasteful. I mean, they're basically saying that territory = reward for men but not women, but they don't have any evidence for that. Plus, even if it's true, they don't even get into the thorny issue of why that might be. Is it really because territory = male? Even if it is, I highly doubt that's an intrinsic characteristic. It also doesn't take a genius to figure out who was in power during those times. I know plenty of women who are quite territorial in playing video games, and while that's an anecdote, I wonder as well what their sample was like...

[chienne_folle]

I'm a woman who plays video games obsessively. Lots of women don't play games because they're mostly made by men, for men. Most women don't want to, for example, refight WWII; I'm not quite sure why doing so is so popular among men. The runaway success of The Sims shows that when games are made about topics that women care about, they buy in great numbers and play for many hours. We're a vast, untapped market -- you'd think somebody out there would be getting rich catering to us.