Understanding Children’s Choices and Cognition in Video Game Play
A Synthesis of Three Studies
Abstract
This article provides a synthesis of a group of research studies conducted to better understand in what ways children’s entertainment video game play choices relate to their creativity, motivations, problem-solving strategies, learning preferences, and beliefs about how to play games. Three studies were conducted among American students: (1) a survey and creativity assessment with students aged 9–11, (2) an in-depth qualitative study with three adolescent boys, and (3) an online survey. Key findings from this research relate to both psychological factors motivating video game play, and cognition and choices children make while playing video games. Results from these studies demonstrate that, despite assumptions that children play video games to avoid mental stimulation, children are actually motivated by the challenge and thinking required by video games. The reward system used in video games is a strong continuing motivator for boys in particular. Among both genders, playing certain genres of video games is related to utilizing particular learning strategies. Additionally, though creativity does not appear to be hindered by video game play, the most creative children are generally not choosing to spend their time on video games. Finally, children create their own code of conduct and ethics within video game play, although an individual’s work ethic within video games tends to reflect patterns in other areas of life. Collectively, these studies provide a rich picture of children’s video game play and show consistency, both between game contexts and real life choices, and with other literature related to children’s motivations and strategies for learning.
References
1999). The use of computer games as an educational tool: Identification of appropriate game types and game elements. British Journal of Educational Technology, 30, 311–321.
(2001). Effects of violent games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353–359.
(2010). A negative association between video game experience and proactive cognitive control. Psychophysiology, 47, 34–42.
(2009). Effects of realism on extended violent and nonviolent video game play on aggressive thoughts, feelings, and physiological arousal. Aggressive Behavior, 35, 213–224.
(2002). Video games and children’s imagination. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 28, 305–325.
(2011). From the playroom to the classroom: Children’s views of video game play and academic learning. Child Development Perspectives, 5, 99–103.
(2008). Impasse-driven learning in the context of video games. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 1530–1541.
(2010). Students’ perceptions about the use of video games in the classroom. Computers & Education, 54, 1145–1156.
(2011). Correlates of objectively measured sedentary behavior in US preschool children. Pediatrics, 128, 937–945.
(2009). Effect of computer-based video games on children: An experimental study. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 12, 1–10.
(2002). Understanding youth obesity and media use: Implications for future intervention programs. Quest, 54, 259–275.
(2012). A systematic literature review of empirical evidence on computer games and serious games. Computers & Education, 59, 661–686.
(2007). Cheating: Gaining advantage in video games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
(1997). Video and computer games: Effect on children and implications for health education. Journal of School Health, 67, 133–138.
(2013). Youth and video games: Exploring effects on learning and engagement. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 221, doi: 10.1027/2151-2604/a000135
(2009). Modelling players’ behaviours and learning strategies in video games. In , Proceedings of the 3rd European conference on games based learning (pp. 120–123). Reading, UK: Academic Publishing.
(2010). Much ado about nothing: The misestimation, over interpretation of violent video game effects in eastern, western nations: Comment on Anderson et al. (2010). Psychological Bulletin, 136, 174–178.
(2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
(2004). The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 5–22.
(2009). Playing active video games increases energy expenditure in children. Pediatrics, 124, 534–540.
(2006). Effect of action video games on the spatial distribution of visuospatial attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32, 1465–1478.
(2009). Relationships between computer and video game play and creativity among upper elementary school students. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 40, 1–21.
(2010). Re-examining gender differences in video game play: Time spent and feelings of success. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 43, 293–308.
(2011). Children’s choices and strategies in video games. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 532–539.
(2012a ). A new investigation into children’s video game play: Troubling trends for creative problem solving. Unpublished manuscript2012b). Academic dishonesty and video game play: Is new media use changing conceptions of cheating? Computers & Education, 59, 1145–1152.
(2012c). Stochastic frontier estimation of efficient learning in video games. Computers & Education, 58, 534–541.
(2011). Negotiating students’ conceptions of 'cheating' in video games and in school. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations, 3, 44–56.
(1998). Failure to connect: How computers affect our children’s minds – for better and worse. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
(2008). Gender differences in the mesocorticolimbic system during computer game-play. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 42, 253–258.
(2012). Gender and player characteristics in video game play of preadolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 1782–1789.
(2006). Still a man’s game: Gender representation in online reviews of video games. Mass Communication and Society, 9, 103–114.
(2009). Using video games in science instruction: Pedagogical, social, and concept-related aspects. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics & Technology Education, 9, 117–134.
(2003). Literacy in the new media age. London, UK: Routledge.
(1994). Do role-playing games promote crime, Satanism, and suicide among players as critics claim? Journal of Popular Culture, 28, 67–79.
(2001). Exploring literacy on the internet: Internet Project: Preparing students for new literacies in a global village. The Reading Teacher, 54, 568–572.
(2011). Effect of opponent type of moral emotions and responses to video game play. CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 14, 695–698.
(1982). Thirty billion quarters can’t be wrong – or can they? Today’s Education, 71, 53–55.
(2010). Children’s motivations for video game play in the context of normal development. Review of General Psychology, 14, 180–187.
(2012). A study on exploiting commercial digital games into school context. Educational Technology & Society, 15, 15–27.
(2001a). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9, 1–6.
(2001b). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9, 1–6.
(1996). ScienceSpace: Lessons for designing immersive virtual realities. Proceedings of CHI 96 (pp. 89–90). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
(2001). The effects of violent video games on aggression: A meta-analysis. Human Communication Research, 27, 409–431.
(2008). Video games in the middle school classroom. Middle School Journal, 39, 4–11.
(2011). Youth and the ethics of identity play in virtual spaces. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 22, 111–138.
(2011). Problem solving and game-based learning: Effects of middle grade students’ hypothesis testing strategies on learning outcomes. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 44, 453–472.
(2008). Designing centers of expertise for academic learning through video games. Theory Into Practice, 47, 240–251.
(1990). Torrance tests of creative thinking. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service.
(2000). Children and computers: New technology – old concerns. Children and Computer Technology, 10, 31–43.
(2010). The role of structural characteristics in video-game play motivation: A Q-methodology study. CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 13, 581–585.
(2007). Motivations of play in online games. Journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior, 9, 772–775.
(