Videogame power harnessed for positive goals

Jive Health, a startup founded by Northwestern University student Dennis Ai, produced a mobile game that encourages children to eat more fruits and vegetables, with the goal of curbing childhood obesity. In the game, kids must find apples or other fruits for their animal characters and take a picture of real-life foods to advance to the next level. “Kids, they really do enjoy playing the game, it’s looking very promising,” said Ai, whose team won the Innovation Challenge prize sponsored by the nonprofit Partnership for a Healthier America. “You can’t teach kids healthy eating habits by just preaching to them.” Even the oft-criticized “shooter games” can have an upside: a University of Toronto study showed that playing shooting or driving videogames, even for a short time, improves the ability to search for a hidden target. Researcher Ian Spence said these visual skills can be useful. “It’s necessary for baggage screening, reading X-rays or MRIs, interpreting satellite images, defeating camouflage or even just locating a friend’s face in a crowd,” he said. Boston Children’s Hospital researchers reported that a game can help children with anger problems regulate their emotions. The game involves shooting at enemy spaceships while avoiding shooting at friendly ones. When their heart rate goes above a certain level, players lose their ability to shoot, teaching them skills to keep calm, according to a study published in the journal Adolescent Psychiatry. Another game, “Darfur is Dying,” was created by University of Southern California students to raise awareness about the region’s humanitarian crisis. And a 2004 study showed that surgeons who played videogames made fewer errors, possibly helped by learning focus and coordination. So-called serious games experts are stepping up their efforts to harness the power of games. The topic is likely to be part of the discussion at the Game Developers Conference this month in San Francisco. Academic experts gathered last year to discuss the topic in a session organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “There are so many ways games can be used to have this kind of an impact, and clearly one of the big ways is awareness learning,” said Carrie Heeter, of the University of Michigan’s Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab. Heeter, one of the participants at the White House meeting, said games in her lab help teach the importance of sanitation, or help learn about medical disorders or pollution. But there are often unintended results. “We have a student from China who was motivated to learn English by playing ‘Tomb Raider,'” she said. Northeastern University professor Magy Seif el-Nasr has been working on research about the impact of games. While some people play for a sense of reward, others play to connect with friends. “Some games can promote a lot of thinking,” which can be especially important for older adults, said Seif el-Nasr. “This kind of problem-solving activity promotes better cognition and better memory over time.”
(Rob Lever/ Phys Org)