Can Videogames Improve Executive Functioning? A Research Based on Computational Neurosciences
Nowadays, we are living a different use and understanding of videogames. Particularly, Serious Games aim to develop specific objectives beyond entertainment, mainly, educational and training objectives. There is a novel perspective that uses serious games
- PDF / 1,888,477 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 102 Downloads / 274 Views
Research Lab, University of Castilla-la Mancha, Paseo de la Universidad 4, Ciudad Real, Spain {ramon.hlucas,jesus.fontecha,Ivan.GDiaz, jose.bravo}@uclm.es, {Carlos.Gutierrez5, MEsperanza.Johnson}@alu.uclm.es http://mami.uclm.es 2 eSmile, Psychology for Children and Adolescents, Calle Toledo 65, Ciudad Real, Spain [email protected] Abstract. Nowadays, we are living a different use and understanding of videogames. Particularly, Serious Games aim to develop specific objectives beyond entertainment, mainly, educational and training objectives. There is a novel perspective that uses serious games as an innovative tool in the field of health (health games). This paper belongs to that perspective due to its multidisciplinary perspective focused on neurosciences and computation. The main goal is to determine the frontal-lobe brain activity (executive functioning) while using videogames. The participants of the developed experiments were children from 8 to 12 years old whose executive functioning was evaluated using psychological assessments to obtain a cognitive profile and can validate the cognitive skills developed during the use of videogames, particularly, adventure-action genre. The analysis of brain activity was performed through an electroencephalography neuroheadset which collects brain signals during the physiological assessment and while users are playing videogames. The hypotheses to validate are whether videogames can develop executive functioning and whether it is possible to identify which kind of cognitive skills are developed during each kind of typical mechanics in adventure-action videogames. Keywords: Serious games Videogames Health games Executive functioning Computational neurosciences Cognitive rehabilitation Assistive technologies
1 Introduction Executive functioning is a general term for cognitive processes that includes working memory, reasoning, task flexibility, problem solving, and planning. These functions control and manage other cognitive processes that enable self-management, environment adaptation, selective attention, and inhibitory control. Most of these functions are © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 J. Bravo et al. (Eds.): AmIHEALTH 2015, LNCS 9456, pp. 201–212, 2015. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-26508-7_20
202
T. Mondéjar et al.
mainly developed (not necessary in a linear manner) during the preadolescence. The executive functioning is carried out, mainly but not solely sufficient, by the brain’s frontal lobe. Authors such as Piaget and Vigosky, children’s games are essential to cognitive processes and personal-emotional development. The cognitive skills above are tightly related to traditional games, and can be extrapolated to videogames [1]. This paper contributes to the efficient design of Serious Games (SG). This kind of games aims to achieve goals beyond just entertaining, typically goals related to education and training. Opportunity to use simulators, virtual worlds and interactive environments brings amazing possibilities in different areas. Particu
Data Loading...
