This is the talk script to accompany the Gackenbach and Guthrie presentation at the Canadian Game Studies Association meeting in 2015 in Calgary, AB.

1. SLIDE19 Goodafternooneveryone. Myname isCraigGuthrieandtodayI will betalkingto
youaboutthe secondstudyinthis series,whichI did as an honours studentunderthe
supervisionof Dr.Gackenbach. Themethodsinthisstudy are somewhatdifferentfromthe
firststudy. We usedtwo moreattentiontasks, in additionto the changeblindnessfromstudy
1. We also incorporated5individual differencescales Incontrastto the previousstudy,no
dreamreportswere gathered andno highversuslowactivitycomparisons.
SLIDE20 Participantswereprimarilyfirstyearpsychologystudents inUniversity. Pre-
screenedqualificationswerebasedoneitherhavinghighactivityineither video gamingor
contemplativepractice,orlowactivityin bothfor the controls. Datacollectionoriginally
consistedof237participantswith73% femaleand 27% male. Consideringwewantedto
comparegroupdifferencesbysex,wehad to decreasethe amountoffemalesto roughly
match the males. Thus,the final cell countsaredisplayed. Duringeachstudysession,
participantsweregivena briefintroductionandweregiveninstructionmanualsto complete
the attention tasksonline,as well ascompletinganonlinesurveythat consistedofvarious
scales. The studysessionswerecompletedincomputerlaboratories.
SLIDE 21 The attentiontasks completedinthis studywere ChangeBlindness,theStroop
effect, and MultipleObjectTracking. Changeblindnessincorporatedtheswitchingoftwo
exact imagesflickeringbackandforthwithonesmall detail changing.Thetask was to detect
the change, suchas an extraboat shownhere. TheStroopeffecthadwordsthat initially
matched the wordinprint colorandthen hadcontrastingcolors. Multipleobjecttracking
had objectsfloatingacrossthescreen. Participantstrackedspecificobjectsamongstother
objectsthat werethe sameIt washypothesizedgamerswouldoutperformboththe
contemplativeandcontrol groups ontheseattentiontasks.
SLIDE 22 For the participant’sbasicbackgroundinformation,therewerecontemplativeand
gamingquestionsaskedsuchasthe number ofgamesplayed,favoritegamegenres, and
types ofmeditationorprayerpracticed. The5 individual differencescales includedtheSelf-
PresenceQuestionnaire,KentuckyInventoryofMindfulnessSkills,Mindful Attention
AwarenessScale,DreamIntensityInventory,and the Spiritual DreamsScale. Whilethe
Spiritual dreamsscaleandthe KentuckyInventoryof MindfulnessSkillswereaimed
towardsbetter performanceforthecontemplativegroup,theself-presencequestionnaire
and the mindful attentionawarenessscalesweregearedtowardsbetterperformanceinthe
gaminggroup. Thedream intensityinventorybasicallymeasureddreamlucidityand

2. control dreamingforboththe contemplativeandgaminggroups. It washypothesizedthat
luciddreamingwouldbehigherinthe contemplativegroupandcontrol dreamingwouldbe
higherinthe gaminggroup.
SLIDE23 Forthe attentiontasks results,the changeblindnesstotal time in secondswas
significantlyfasterforthegaminggroupwhencompared to the other two groups. In
addition,there wasa sex bygroupinteractiononthe amountof trial aborts,as seen here.
Consideringtherewere7differenttrial scenes,it appearsthat the femalesinthe
contemplativegroupwere significantlymorelikelyto abortandthen completetheirtrials.
Formultipleobjecttracking,the gaminggroupwasmost successful indetectingthe floating
target objects. For the Strooptask,there wereno groupdifferences.
SLIDE24 Forindividual differencescales,gamerswerefavoredacrossall threesubscales,
proto,core, andextended, onthe self-presencequestionnaire.RatanandHaslerin2009
definedproto self-presenceastheextent to whichthe avatar is integratedinto bodyschema.
Coreself-presenceisrelatedto emotional responsesinindividuals.Extendedself-presence
is definedasthe extent to whichthe avatar is important. Thesedefinitionssuggesthow
gamersrelatedthemselvesto theiravatars ingamingenvironmentsalso appliedto theother
groupsinhowthey relatedthemselvesto theiravatarssuch as inFacebook. However,it’s
importantto note that there wereno groupdifferencesinsocial mediause.Thus,the self-
presencedifferenceswereentirelydueto gaming.
SLIDE25 Contraryto prediction,therewasno significanceacrossgroups inregardsto the
KentuckyInventoryof MindfulnessSkills. Areasonableexplanationwouldbeto saythat
mindfulnessisapopularterm that most studentsare awareof inregardsto respectfully
payingattention. As a moderntrend, mindfulnessisincreasinglyviewedasahealthymental
activityindependentofcontemplativepractice. Whilethere were no subscalescoregroup
differencesinthe mindful attentionawareness scale,therewere a numberofsignificant
findingswith the item questions. Thegaminggroupwasmoremindful to boththe
contemplativeandcontrol groupsintheEMOTIONand LISTENING items. TheEmotionItem
is shortfor “I couldbeexperiencingsomeemotionandnotbe consciousofituntil sometime
later”and the listeningitemis shortfor “I findmyselflisteningto someonewithoneear
whiledoingsomethingelseatthe same time.” Theseobservationswereconsistentwith
gamingactivityas an absorbingpractice. Gamers weremorereceptiveto their feelingsand

3. to hearingothersspeakwhilegaming. Areversetrend wasfoundforthe third item,
PREOCCUPIED,inthat the contemplativeandcontrol groupsweremoremindful to the
gaminggroup. Thepreoccupieditemisshortfor “I findmyselfpreoccupiedwiththefuture
orthe past.” In this sense,gamerswere too preoccupiedthinkingaboutwhattheirnext
movewouldbein the game bymostlyplanningahead.
SLIDE26 Several individual itemresponseswereanalyzedfromtheDreamIntensity
Inventorydueto their conceptual importance.Therewereknowingyourdreamingwhileyou
are dreaming,dreamlucidity,and reportingbeingableto control dreaming whileit’s
ongoing. Contraryto expectation,boththe gamingand control groupswerehigherthanthe
contemplativegroupinluciddreaming. Thiscouldbebecauseall subjectswerestudents.
Therewasno differenceinself-reporteddreamcontrol incontrastto ourearlierresearch.
TheSpiritual DreamsScaleresultedinagroup effecton the noesissubscale. Noesis,whichis
understandingspiritualitythroughtheintellect,wassuperiorforthe contemplativegroup.
However,the lackofgroupdifferencesontheothersix subscaleswasnotpredictedand
arguesfornot muchof an effectof contemplativepractice onspiritual dreams. Thankyou
all forlisteningandnowDr. Gackenbachwill explainthefinal study.