Smartphone chronic gaming consumption and positive coping practice

Purpose: Chronic consumption practice has been greatly accelerated by mobile, interactive and smartphone gaming technology devices. This study explores how chronic consumption of smartphone gaming produces positive coping practice. Design/methodology/approach: Underpinned by cognitive framing theory, empirical insights from eleven focus groups (n=62) reveal how smartphone gaming enhances positive coping amongst gamers and non-gamers. Findings: The findings reveal how the chronic consumption of games allows technology to act with privileged agency that resolves tensions between individuals and collectives. Consumption narratives of smartphone games, even when play is limited, lead to the identification of three cognitive frames through which positive coping processes operate: (a) the market generated frame, (b) the social being frame, and (c) the citizen frame. Research limitations/implications: This paper adds to previous research by providing an understanding of positive coping practice in the smartphone chronic gaming consumption. Originality/value: In smartphone chronic gaming consumption, cognitive frames enable positive coping by fostering appraisal capacities in which individuals confront, hegemony, culture and alterity-morality concerns

The Contrasting Effects of an Action Video Game on Visuo-Spatial Processing and Proactive Cognitive Control

First person shooter or action video games represent one of the most popular genres within the gaming industry. Studies reveal that action gaming experience leads to enhancements of visuo-spatial processing. In contrast, some correlational evidence reveals that experience with action video games may be associated with reduced proactive cognitive control. The two primary goals of the current study were to test the causal nature of the effect of action gaming on proactive cognitive control and to examine whether an increase in visuo-spatial processing and a decrease in proactive cognitive control arise from the same amount of experience playing an action video game. Participants completed tasks measuring visuo-spatial processing and cognitive control before and after 10 practice sessions involving one of three video games or were assigned to a no gaming experience control group. The data revealed the typical increase in visuo-spatial processing and a decrease in proactive, but not reactive, cognitive control following action game training. The sizes of these two training effects were similar in magnitude, but interpretation of the effects was constrained by baseline differences between the four groups of subjects. The possibility of a causal effect of action gaming on proactive cognitive control is interesting within the context of correlational evidence linking greater action gaming experience to reduced cognitive control, poor decision making, and increased impulsivity

An empirical investigation of gaming destination images

This research is an investigation of the images and perceptions of four selected gaming destinations - Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Chicagoland (IL, IN), and Connecticut - in order to uncover their perceived strengths and weaknesses. The evaluation of each destination will be done through evaluating cognitive perceptions, affective perceptions, overall image, and behavioral intentions through a combination of quantitative and qualitative questions. The study was able to determine that there are significant differences between the perceptions of each of the four destinations. The strengths and weaknesses of each of the gaming markets can be identified to aid marketers in formulating a more effective marketing campaign and positioning strategy, as well as help to enhance the image management of each gaming destination. Overall Las Vegas was rated the top gaming market on all but one of the cognitive variables, cleanliness of environment. Interestingly, Las Vegas as given the highest mean score on the cognitive variables of family appeal and adult appeal. Throughout the majority of variables Atlantic City was mostly rated second to Las Vegas with Chicagoland and Connecticut switching between the third and fourth gaming markets. The overall image answers coincided with the cognitive and affective variable answers supporting Las Vegas as having the best overall image. Answers to the qualitative (open-ended) questions about each gaming market offered further explanation for the quantitative questions which provided support that a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods are necessary in understanding image and perception in gaming markets

Design and evaluation of an intergenerational gaming platform for cognitive stimulation

Cognitive stimulation therapies based on games are commonly used nowadays in care centers for people suffering from Alzheimer's or other cognitive diseases. Although users usually like the proposed games, they are not motivated enough to play willingly on a regular basis. This work presents a novel game platform for cognitive stimulation that introduces the factor of intergenerational interaction in order to increase user’s motivation towards playing. This work tries to involve patient’s relatives in the gaming experience by including the use of social networks. The presented gaming platform has been designed, implemented and evaluated with real patients, proving its technical feasibility and usability. Evaluation results and practitioners’ experience show that the gaming platform will be more suitable for patients suffering from a mild level of cognitive disease

Adolescent Motives, Gaming Behavior and Its Implications to Learning: The Case of Junior and Senior High School Students

While many individuals consider gaming as a diversion and a barrier to personal growth, the current research provides a fresh outlook on gaming behaviors. The study, which utilizes descriptive and correlational designs, investigates the motivational basis of gaming behavior among 246 adolescent gamers from a Junior and Senior High School Department in the City of Ilagan, Isabela. The study uses standardized tests to measure and compare the respondents' gaming behavior and motivation and analyzes the data through various statistical methods. The results show that the participants' gaming behaviors are mainly motivated by the domains of Recreation, Skill Development, and Coping. However, the study also reveals that excessive and problematic gaming can negatively affect academic performance, cognitive capacities, social and emotional development, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and prosocial conduct. The study recommends that educators and game designers should consider the pros and cons of various gaming motives and integrate them into balanced learning experiences that promote cognitive, affective, and social growth. The study also highlights the importance of monitoring and moderating gaming behavior in educational settings to ensure healthy and balanced learning outcomes

"No level up!": no effects of video game specialization and expertise on cognitive performance

Previous research into the effects of action video gaming on cognition has suggested that long term exposure to this type of game might lead to an enhancement of cognitive skills that transfer to non-gaming cognitive tasks. However, these results have been controversial. The aim of the current study was to test the presence of positive cognitive transfer from action video games to two cognitive tasks. More specifically, this study investigated the effects that participants’ expertise and genre specialisation have on cognitive improvements in one task unrelated to video gaming (a flanker task) and one related task (change detection task with both control and genre-specific images). This study was unique in three ways. Firstly, it analysed a continuum of expertise levels, which has yet to be investigated in research into the cognitive benefits of video gaming. Secondly, it explored genre-specific skill developments on these tasks by comparing Action and Strategy video game players. Thirdly, it used a very tight experiment design, including the experimenter being blind to expertise level and genre specialisation of the participant. Ninety-two university students aged between 18 and 30 (M = 21.25) were recruited through opportunistic sampling and were grouped by video game specialization and expertise level. While the results of the flanker task were consistent with previous research (i.e. effect of congruence), there was no effect of expertise, and the action gamers failed to outperform the strategy gamers. Additionally, contrary to expectation, there was no interaction between genre specialisation and image type in the change detection task, again demonstrating no expertise effect. The lack of effects for game specialization and expertise goes against previous research on the positive effects of action video gaming on other cognitive tasks

AHP-based Adaptive Resource Selection for Cognitive Platform in Cloud Gaming Service

Cloud gaming service enables offloading heavy video-processing tasks up to the cloud server so that simple computers or mobile devices can be eligible to run sophisticated games, but on the expense of high network communications. In this regard, the adequate network utilization must be realized for delivering good gaming experiences to the game players. This necessitates a cognitive platform, which is capable of modifying its multimedia quality requirement in response to the network constraint, and notifying the cloud gaming server for updating the corresponded workload. In this regard, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method has been proposed to deploy at the cognitive platform for cloud gaming service to select an optimal resource allocation strategy that satisfies various multimedia requirements and energy-awareness. Experiment results can confirm that the proposed method is flexible to enhance the capability of cloud gaming service in term of more efficient cloud gaming resource utilization, particularly during heavy-congested periods, while players’ quality of gaming experience can be still maintained under the mandate of intelligent agent on the player devices

Internet and gaming addiction: a systematic literature review of neuroimaging studies

In the past decade, research has accumulated suggesting that excessive Internet use can lead to the development of a behavioral addiction. Internet addiction has been considered as a serious threat to mental health and the excessive use of the Internet has been linked to a variety of negative psychosocial consequences. The aim of this review is to identify all empirical studies to date that used neuroimaging techniques to shed light upon the emerging mental health problem of Internet and gaming addiction from a neuroscientific perspective. Neuroimaging studies offer an advantage over traditional survey and behavioral research because with this method, it is possible to distinguish particular brain areas that are involved in the development and maintenance of addiction. A systematic literature search was conducted, identifying 18 studies. These studies provide compelling evidence for the similarities between different types of addictions, notably substance-related addictions and Internet and gaming addiction, on a variety of levels. On the molecular level, Internet addiction is characterized by an overall reward deficiency that entails decreased dopaminergic activity. On the level of neural circuitry, Internet and gaming addiction led to neuroadaptation and structural changes that occur as a consequence of prolonged increased activity in brain areas associated with addiction. On a behavioral level, Internet and gaming addicts appear to be constricted with regards to their cognitive functioning in various domains. The paper shows that understanding the neuronal correlates associated with the development of Internet and gaming addiction will promote future research and will pave the way for the development of addiction treatment approaches

High Illusion of Control Adolescents: A moderated mediation Analyses of the Effects of Forms of Counterfactual Thinking and Gender in Problem Gambling and Gaming

Abstract Three studies (Study 1, N = 322 male adolescents, Study 2, N = 401 male and female adolescents, and Study 3, longitudinal, N = 56 male and female adolescents) analyzed the effects cognitive and psychographic variables in the relationships among illusion of control (IC), problem gambling and problem gaming. Moderated mediation analyses results using PROCESS macro in the three studies confirmed: (1) the positive mediating effect of upward CFT in the association between IC and problem gambling and problem gaming; (2) the negative mediating effect of downward CFT in the association between IC and problem gambling and problem gaming; and (3) the moderating effect of gender in confirmed mediations. The results highlighted that (1) high levels of IC act as risk factors for problem gambling and gaming that may be boosted by increased upward CFT, and (2) gender and downward CFR act as protective factors, highlighting the protective effect of downward CFT because it buffers the negative effects of IC on adolescent problem gambling and gaming; and (3) problem gambling and problem gaming appears to be similar in manifestation among Nigerian adolescents. Implication statement The finding lend support to the faulty cognition model of problem gambling and gaming, pioneered the moderated-mediation model of problem gambling/gaming correlates in sub-Saharan Africa, and highlight the need for cognitive-based problem gambling/gaming treatment plan focused on checkmating of faulty gambling/gaming cognitions as means of controlling problem gambling/gaming

Conjoining the Concepts of Visitor Attitude and Place Image to Better Understand Casino Patrons\u27 Behavioral Intentions

The importance of visitor attitude and place image in understanding individual’s visit behavioral intention has both been emphasized in tourism literature. However, the two concepts seem to have been amalgamated; their distinctive and interactive roles are rarely discussed. To fill this gap, this study investigated visitor attitude from two different aspects in the context of casino gaming – one’s generic attitude versus specific attitude. A conjoined conceptual model based on the theories of planned behavior and place image is developed and empirically tested in the context of casinos in Central Indiana. The results indicate that ‘generic attitude,’ ‘specific attitude’ and ‘cognitive image’ all play significant and distinctive roles in the process of formulating visitor’s behavioral intention. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed