Video games and Intellectual Disabilities: a literature review.

Los videojuegos son omnipresentes en la sociedad y esta tecnología ha trascendido su lado lúdico inicial para convertirse también en una herramienta educativa y de entrenamiento cognitivo. En este sentido, diferentes estudios han demostrado que los jugadores expertos obtener ventajas en diversos procesos cognitivos respecto a no-jugadores y jugar con juegos de video puede resultar en especial los beneficios que en algunos casos podría generalizarse a otras tareas. En consecuencia, los juegos de video podría ser utilizado como una herramienta de formación para mejorar las capacidades cognitivas en poblaciones atípicas, como las relativas a las personas con discapacidad intelectual (DI). Sin embargo, la literatura sobre los videojuegos en personas con ID es escasa. En este trabajo se ejecutó una revisión narrativa de los estudios sobre el uso de los videojuegos en relación a las personas con ID.Video games are ubiquitous in the society and this technology has transcended its initial playful side to become also an educational and cognitive training tool. In this sense, different studies have shown that expert game players gain advantages in various cognitive processes respect to non-players and that playing with video games can result in particular profits that in some cases could be generalized to other tasks. Accordingly, video games could be used as a training tool in order to improve cognitive abilities in atypical populations, such as relating to individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). However, literature concerning video games in people with ID is sparse. In this paper we executed a narrative review of the studies about the use of video games in relation to people with ID.• Fundación Valhondo Calaff (Cáceres), para Marta Rodríguez Jiménez • Università di Padova. Beca CPDA 127939, para Silvia LanfranchipeerReviewe

Game-based learning or game-based teaching?

Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring games based learning and its potential for edcuatio

Learning math as you play: comparing arithmetic performance enhancement induced by game play and paper exercises

One of the promises of video game training is that, compared to traditional training, it can be more engaging and entertaining (Boot et. al., 2008). However, besides entertainment, games have shown to have the potential to impact a larger variety of cognitive abilities. Previous research has consistently shown that several aspects in cognition such as visual short-memory, multitasking and spatial cognition can be enhanced by game play. In a previous study, we found that playing Monkey Tales, a commercial game aimed at training arithmetic skills in children, helped second grade pupils to increase their accuracy in mental calculation as compared to paper exercises or no exercises. The present study aimed to explore how arithmetic performance enhancement induced by game play and paper exercises differs. In order to do this, we compared the performance gains that second graders achieved in a computer test made for assessing their math skills. We performed a combined analysis of the changes in two behavioral measurements: accuracy and reaction times. Children were tested at two points in time: before and after the three week period. We compared the reaction times and the accuracy improvements between these two moments and compared different items types (e. g. understanding tenths, understanding hundreds, even or odd up to 100 among other types). We found indirect evidence suggesting that arithmetic performance enhancement induced by game play and paper exercises might rely on slightly different cognitive mechanisms

Just how expert are “expert” video-game players? Assessing the experience and expertise of video-game players across “action” video-game genres

Video-game play (particularly “action” video-games) holds exciting promise as an activity that may provide generalized enhancement to a wide range of perceptual and cognitive abilities (for review see Latham et al., 2013a). However, in this article we make the case that to assess accurately the effects of video-game play researchers must better characterize video-game experience and expertise. This requires a more precise and objective assessment of an individual's video-game history and skill level, and making finer distinctions between video-games that fall under the umbrella of “action” games. Failure to consider these factors may partly be responsible for mixed findings (see Boot et al., 2011)

Learning and Games

Part of the Volume on the Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning In this chapter, I argue that good video games recruit good learning and that a game's design is inherently connected to designing good learning for players. I start with a perspective on learning now common in the Learning Sciences that argues that people primarily think and learn through experiences they have had, not through abstract calculations and generalizations. People store these experiences in memory -- and human long-term memory is now viewed as nearly limitless -- and use them to run simulations in their minds to prepare for problem solving in new situations. These simulations help them to form hypotheses about how to proceed in the new situation based on past experiences. The chapter also discusses the conditions experience must meet if it is to be optimal for learning and shows how good video games can deliver such optimal learning experiences. Some of the issues covered include: identity and learning; models and model-based thinking; the control of avatars and "empathy for a complex system"; distributed intelligence and cross-functional teams for learning; motivation, and ownership; emotion in learning; and situated meaning, that is, the ways in which games represent verbal meaning through images, actions, and dialogue, not just other words and definitions

Simon-Task Reveals Balanced Visuomotor Control in Experienced Video-Game Players

Both short and long-term video-game play may result in superior performance on visual and attentional tasks. To further these findings, we compared the performance of experienced male video-game players (VGPs) and non-VGPs on a Simon-task. Experienced-VGPs began playing before the age of 10, had a minimum of 8 years of experience and a minimum play time of over 20 h per week over the past 6 months. Our results reveal a significantly reduced Simon-effect in experienced-VGPs relative to non-VGPs. However, this was true only for the right-responses, which typically show a greater Simon-effect than left-responses. In addition, experienced-VGPs demonstrated significantly quicker reaction times and more balanced left-versus-right-hand performance than non-VGPs. Our results suggest that experienced-VGPs can resolve response-selection conflicts more rapidly for right-responses than non-VGPs, and this may in part be underpinned by improved bimanual motor control

The precision of experienced action video-game players: Line bisection reveals reduced leftward response bias

Twenty-two experienced action video-game players (AVGPs) and 18 non-VGPs were tested on a pen-and-paper line bisection task that was untimed. Typically, right-handers bisect lines 2 % to the left of true centre, a bias thought to reflect the dominance of the right-hemisphere for visuospatial attention. Expertise may affect this bias, with expert musicians showing no bias in line bisection performance. Our results show that experienced-AVGPs also bisect lines with no bias with their right hand and a significantly reduced bias with their left hand compared to non-AVGPs. Bisections by experienced-AVGPs were also more precise than those of non-AVGPs. These findings show the cognitive proficiencies of experienced-AVGPs can generalize beyond computer based tasks, which resemble their training environment

Digital Gaming and Tolkien, 1976-2015

‘Tolkien’ the cultural phenomenon is far bigger than J. R. R. Tolkien the author, or even J. R. R. Tolkien the author-and-oeuvre. When Christopher Tolkien asserted in 2012 that his father’s legacy has been rendered monstrous he blamed its fate on the gross depredations of commercialization generally and the Warner Bros’ franchise in particular. Explorations of – and encomiums on – the afterlives of Tolkien’s novels generally focus on the impact of Peter Jackson’s films. The forces which have shaped contemporary ‘Tolkien’ are not only commercial however; fans also ‘do things’ with Tolkien’s writings. The drive to make money has played a significant part in shaping Tolkien’s legacy, but audience engagements and technological change have also been highly significant as this article demonstrates through an exploration of digital games (computer and console) which adapt Tolkien’s writings from the 1970s to the present. The article considers both licensed and unlicensed games, and both fan and franchise practices and creations

Prediction and Situational Option Generation in Soccer

Paul Ward, Michigan Technological University Naturalistic models of decision making, such as the Recognition- Primed Decision (RPD) model (e.g., Klein, Calderwood, & Clinton-Cirocco, 1986; Klein, 1997), suggest that as individuals become more experienced within a domain they automatically recognize situational patterns as familiar which, in turn, activates an associated situational response. Typically, this results in a workable course of action being generated first, and subsequent options generated only if the initial option proves ineffective