1. One Size Fits None: Individual
Differences in the Perceptions
of Digital Media
Megan Harris
Will Shelstad
Grace Waldfogle
Dawn Blasko
2. Can old gamers learn new
tricks?
Megan A. Harris
Training working memory improves attention
3. An object will flash on the screen.
Pay attention to both the image and the image location.
Answer “True or False” to the solved math problem.
Repeat above until asked to recall locations.
14. Multimodal model of working
memory (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974)
Central
Executive
Phonological
Loop
Episodic
Buffer
(Baddeley, 2000)
Visuo-Spatial
Sketchpad
Spatial working memory (SWM) is location-based memory used for
mental rotation, pattern recognition, and navigation.
15. The relationship between visual attention and
working memory
• Visual attention is a selective process.(Treisman, 1980)
• Visual attention is affected by spatial working memory
load – but not verbal. (Oh & Kim, 2004)
Action gamers are typically faster and more
accurate
• Task-switching: cognitive, perceptual, and motor tasks (Green,
Sugarman, Medford, Klobusicky, & Bavelier, 2012)
• Object tracking
• Spatial tasks: mental rotation, navigation (Boot, Kramer, Simons, Fabiani, Gratton,
2008)
16. Will spatial working memory training improve
performance on a visual search task?
Will gaming skills relate to performance?
The Research Gap
17. 41 college students
(24 males; M age = 19.38)
*randomly assigned to training or
control group
Participants
Independent Variable
• Training: Before/After
• Time: Pre/Post
Training
Group
Visual Search
Task: Pre-test
Gaming and
Demographics
Surveys
SWM Task:
SPOT
Visual Search
Task: Post-test
Control
Group
Visual Search
Task: Pre-test
Gaming and
Demographics
Surveys
Visual Search
Task: Post-test
SWM Task:
SPOT
Informed consent (IRB# 45321)
Dependent Variable
• Visual Search response time
(correct trials)
21. There was a significant difference between High and Low skill gamers within the training
group only on the Post-test.
High skill gamers improved more.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Pre Post
Training Group
High Skill Low Skill
22. Video games provide an opportunity to improve
cognitive and perceptual processes of attention.
Using spatial working memory seems to improve
visual search.
Gaming skill plays a role in how well and how
quickly one responds to this type of training.
Possible confound!
The results of this study will aid in the
development of serious games for spatial and
visual training.
It also helps us to better understand the effects
of long-term gaming.
24. Violent Video Games Fail in
Their Mission to Reduce
Stress?
WILLIAM SHELSTAD
CASEY CHADWICK & BRITTANY BITTNER
25. Video Game Usage
70% of children have at least 1 video game console at home
97% of adolescents age 12-17 play computer, web, portable,
or console video games (Lenhart, Kahne, Middaugh, Macgill, Evans & Vitak,
2008)
26. Impact of Video Games
Possible Negatives
Desensitization to violence
General Aggression Model (GAM) (Bushman & Anderson, 2002)
Over-immersion
Possible Benefits
Reducing negative emotions like anger or stress (Olson, 2010)
Mood Management Theory (Zillman, 1988)
Hand-eye coordination (Silvern, 1986)
27. Do Video Games Reduce Stress?
Does narrative matter?
Engaging in the storyline motivates play and encourages
flow (Adams, Koenig, MacNamara, Mayer, & Wainess, 2011)
Flow
Experiential state that occurs when a person is
experiencing optimal engagement with an activity
(Nakamura & Csikszentimihalyi, 2009)
Allows to recover or escape from stressful situations
28. Goals of the Current Study
Do video games reduce stress,
frustration and anger and improve
happiness
Violent games vs. nonviolent video
games
Narrative vs. no narrative
29. Method - Participants
53 total Undergraduates participants, 28 males
and 25 females
33 Experienced and 16 Inexperienced gamers
30. Method - Games
Nintendo Wii System
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Violent Narrative: CoD single-player campaign, Cold War black ops
Violent Non-narrative: CoD zombies
Disney’s Guilty Party
Nonviolent narrative: story mode, players play as a detective, find clues,
mini-games and investigate suspects to solve mystery
Nonviolent non-narrative: party mode with mini-games, random and
limitless
31. Method – Mood Survey
Taken at three times throughout the experiment
1st – Arrival
2nd – After the stress task (PASAT)
3rd – After playing the video game
Asked about current mood (happiness, stress,
frustration)
On a scale of 1-5, how stressed are you?
32. Method – Paced Auditory Serial
Addition Test (PASAT) Gronwell (1977)
Used to induce stress in participants
Hear numbers from computer in 3 second intervals
Take the number they just heard and add it to the
previously one heard
Write down answers on form
Sequence of digits would gradually accelerates
making the task more difficult
Hear Answer
33. Method – Serious Game Measure
Blasko-Drabik (2011)
35 items e.g.,
Narrative
I discovered the story as the game went on
Flow
I forgot about time while playing the game
Enjoyment
I enjoyed exploring the features by trail and error
34. Mood Survey
1
Stress Task
(PASAT)
Mood Survey
2
Play Video
game for 20
minutes
Call of
Duty
(Narrative
or no
narrative)
Mood Survey 3
Serious Games
Measure
Video Game
Experience
Questionnaire
Guilty
Party
(Narrative
or no
narrative)
Method - Procedure
35. Research Questions
1) Did the stress task increase stress levels?
2) Did playing the video game decrease stress
levels?
3) Did playing the video game elicit any
negative emotions?
36. Results
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Before Stress Task After Stress Task After Playing
StressMeans
Females Males
Figure 1: Mean stress levels before task, after task, and after playing.
Covariate Mood Survey Time 1
Main effect of time
F (1,39) = 4.62, p = 0.03
Main effect of gender
F (1,39) = 9.09, p = 0.004
Interaction of time and
gender
F (1,39) = 2.91, p = 0.09
37. Figure 2a: Means for stress levels based on game type and gender
Covariate Mood Survey Time 1
Interaction of narrative and violence
F(1,49) = 1.95, p = .17
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Violent
Narrative
Violent No
Narrative
Nonviolent
Narrative
Nonviolent No
Narrative
StressMeans
Game Type
Males
After Stress
Task
After Playing
Game
38. Figure 2b: Means for stress levels based on game type and gender
Covariate Mood Survey Time 1
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Violent
Narrative
Violent No
Narrative
Nonviolent
Narrative
Nonviolent No
Narrative
StressMeans
Game Type
Females
After Stress
Task
After Playing
Game
39. Figure 3: Means for perceived anger from after completing the stress task and the
after playing the video game based on presence (or absence) of violence
Covariate Mood Survey Time 1
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
After Stress Task After Playing Game
AngerMeans
Game Type
Violent Nonviolent
Significant difference between anger from
before and after playing a nonviolent video game
t (24) = 4.23, p <.001
40. Discussion
After playing the video game stress levels
went down overall.
For women the nonviolent games reduced
stress more.
Anger and frustration actually increased
for the violent video game condition
41. Limitations, Implications & Future
Studies
Examined short term effects
Future research could examine long term
effects
Participants were only college students
Sample should better represent population
More research into nonviolent video
games
44. Would you hire this person?
Would you be friends with them?
45. Our Issue-
- How are people perceived on Facebook? We focused on profile
picture and friend count regarding friendship and employment
potential.
Past Theories and Studies-
o Assumptions based on personal profiles -Vazire & Gosling (2004)
o Assumptions based on appearance in photograph -Naumann, Vazire, Rentfrow & Gosling (2009)
o Correlation of attractiveness and friend count - Tong, Van Der Heide, Langwell, and Walther (2008)
46. The Method
Participants –
There were 92 (N= 92) participants, 53 females and 39
males.
All participants were above the age of 18.
Before participation:
o Informed consent
o Demographic information
o Sex
o Facebook usage
o Facebook frequency
47. Facebook Profile: What Subjects Saw
Stimuli: Manipulations
Facebook Profile 1 High Number of Friends
Social Picture
Facebook Profile 2 Low Number of Friends
Individual Photo
Facebook Profile 3 High Number of Friends
Individual Photo
Facebook Profile 4 Low Number of Friends
Group Picture
48. Dependent Measures
Friendship Potential Scale
I would…
1. Like their status
2. Chat with person
3. Write on their wall
4. Request friend
5. Consider meeting
Employment Potential Scale
I would…
1. Glance at their resume
2. Review their complete resume
3. Have a phone interview with this person
4. Have a phone interview with this person
4. Have a face-to-face interview with this
person
5. Hire this person
40-item Mini-Marker (Saucier,1994)
Assessed Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness,
Conscientiousness & Emotional Stability
Social Job
49. 1
2
3
4
Individual Photo Group Photo
Rating
High Friends Low Friends
Hire This Person
Female Profiles
Female profiles with a low number of friends and an
individual profile picture are more likely to be hired.
1
2
3
4
Individual Photo Group Photo
Rating
High Friends Low Friends
Male Profiles
For males in an employment situation, there were no
significant differences.
50. 1
2
3
4
Individual Photo Group Photo
Rating
High Friends Low Friends
Request This Person as a Friend
Female profiles with a low number of friends and
individual profile are more likely to be requested as a
friend.
Female Profiles
1
2
3
4
Individual Photo Group Photo
Rating
High Friends Low Friends
Male Profiles
Males are viewed differently in a social situation. High
friends group photos are more desirable in a friend.
51. 35
40
45
50
55
60
Individual Picture Group Picture
MeanExtraversionRating
Extraversion
High Friends
Low Friends
Facebook profiles are seen as more extroverted if a group photo is used. However those with low friends and an
individual picture is seen as least extroverted.
Results Continued…
52. 35
40
45
50
55
60
Individual Picture Group Picture
MeanAgreeablenessRating
Agreeableness
Male
Female
Results: Participant's Preference
Those with an individual picture are seen as more agreeable by females.
53. What should you do?
• Females: Be careful!
• Low friend count
• Individual profile photo
• Males
• No preference for friend count or
profile photo
• Females
• Group photo
• High or low friend count
• Males
• High friend count
• No major difference between single or
group photo
Looking for a job: Looking for friends:
54. Future Research
o Look into studies that focus on:
o Photo Albums & Tagged Photos
o Wall Posts & interaction with others
o Links shared
o Items liked
o Grammar and statuses
Photo illustration by MONEY. Lumi Images—Alamy (inset); Sean Murphy—Getty Images
(main)
The PS3 was in the 5th position.
You may have figured it out by now, but this game was really a test of your working memory.
If you found it difficult, there are a couple of reasons why. This is Baddeley and Hitch’s Multimodal model of working memory.
Working memory is made up of several components. The central executive is in charge of directing attention to things that matter. The phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad
Some important things to know about the relationship between VA & SWM
The act of seeing requires a lot of energy in the brain.
Because of this, seeing is a selective process. Items will not make it into working memory unless they have been attended to.
Also, VA is affected by SWM load – but not verbal.
Participants were randomly assigned to either the control or treatment condition.
Francis, G., Neath, I., VanHorn, D. (2008). CogLab 2.0: Visual search [Computer software]. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Measures RT during feature and conjunctive search.
48 base trials – 24F & 24C
Set size 4, 16, 14
Absent vs. Present
PREDICTIONS-
RT increases as set increases.
RT faster for target present vs target absent.
RT faster for F vs. C search (overt vs. covert).
Francis, G., Neath, I., VanHorn, D. (2008). CogLab 2.0: Visual search [Computer software]. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Measures RT during feature and conjunctive search.
48 base trials – 24F & 24C
Set size 4, 16, 14
Absent vs. Present
PREDICTIONS-
RT increases as set increases.
RT faster for target present vs target absent.
RT faster for F vs. C search (overt vs. covert).
Differences between groups:
Control and Training – Pre-test = not significant
High skill and Low skill – Pre-test = not significant
**MEANS: the groups started out on equal ground**
Control and Training – Post-test = not significant
High skill and Low skill – Post-test = 6/8 significant
Within control group: high and low – pre-test = not significant
Within training group: high and low – pre-test = 1/8 significant
Within control group: high and low – post-test = not significant
Within training group: high and low – post-test = 7/8 significant
MEANS: differences between skill groups were only significant when primed with SWM training prior to the post-test
suggests that high skill gamers are quicker to respond to this type of training than low skill gamers
There was a main effect of the time, F (1,46)= 19.08, p <.001. As expected , stress increased after the PASAT. Females reported more stress overall, F (1,46)= 12.44, p = .001. There was no interaction between stress and gender, F (1,46)= 2.69, p = .108.
There was a main effect of stress reduction, but no significant 3 way interaction between narrative, violence and stress reduction, F (1,21)= 1.28, p = .27, for males.
Females playing the nonviolent game showed the greatest reduction in stress.
Anger increased after playing the game, however this was only the case for the violent game.
They were limited to viewing the “wall” and “info” tabs.
Females feel that it is harder to make friends with a group of girls, rather than an individual person.
