Studies that Focus on the Benefits of Computer Gaming?

Mitch Wagner asks: "Are you aware of any studies that research the BENEFICIAL effects of computer gaming? Here's why I ask: I volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul Village homeless shelter computer lab here in San Diego. Homeless men and women come into the lab to search the Internet for jobs, communicate by e-mail, and learn to use computers and the Internet. Recently, the lab installed computer games on several of the machines. From what I've observed, contrary to popular wisdom, computer gaming is a wholesome activity. It teaches people to use computers, learn problem-solving skills, think and - because the players frequently play in teams, or against each other, or looking over each other's shoulders - the players learn how to solve problems and interact in groups. These lessons are especially valuable because many of the clients are emotionally underdeveloped, lack problem-solving skills,and have difficulty working and playing with others. My observation is that time spent in the computer lab is time that the homeless clients are NOT taking drugs, NOT drinking, NOT being violent and ARE using their minds. We'd like to find some kind of studies to test our observations. Are you aware of any? I did some Googling and found two, but I'd like to find some studies that are more conclusive."

"According to research performed at the University of Bristol, video games teach strategic and planning skills that teacher's find necessary to student learning. The study was conducted on 700 7- to 16-year-old boys and girls, however we can theorize those findings might well also apply to adults, especially the kinds of emotionally underdeveloped adults likely to find themselves in a homeless shelter.

The Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science at Case Western Reserve University notes that computer games can help users learn to use a mouse.

Full disclosure: When I'm not volunteering, my day job is as a journalist, and I might want to do an article on this subject. If that makes you uncomfortable, please let me know. I'm not trying to pull anything here - I really and truly am primarily motivated by a desire to help out the clients at SVDP Village."

Comments

Spelling...

[cperciva]

I learned to spell by playing Sierra adventure games -- King's Quest I/II/III, Space Quest I/II -- where you had to move to the right position on the screen and then type the action you wanted to take.

Newer games, which simply require pointing and clicking, lack this benefit.

MIT's Comparative Media Studies Dept

[slustbader]

Check out http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/, MIT's Comparative Media Studies' Games to Teach department.

Do your own study? (With help?)

[ggwood]

Hi I tried to find a study that would help you but failed. Perhaps there are no studies in this area. (I fail to see how moderators can mod up posts which don't actually refer to studies, as that is what was asked for...). Perhaps you could study your residents (if this is legal, the governing body doesn't mind, etc, etc.)

I can see two benefits to games in the shelter. One it keeps the residents in the program. From my limited experience with the unhoused, this would seem a tremendous benefit to most (most needing some kind of help). The second is their emotional growth, which you described. This latter point would be tough to measure. Perhaps a psychology or sociology graduate student could help. They should be eager for a thesis topic. If interested, the best people to call are department secrataries. They usually can tell you which professor would be most helpful.

The first kind of help the residents get may be easier to measure - you just count them and see if the ones who play games stay longer (on average). I assume there is some kind of "graduation" from the program. You could see if that event became more likely with those residents who played the games. Perhaps you could also see if the rate of rule breaking is reduced in those who play games. I'm sure you will know which (if any) of these make sense for your situation.

I hate reducing things as complicated, beautiful and powerful as people or emotions to numbers, but if you can measure a benefit, you can write about it in a more concrete way and perhaps spread the benefit to other, similar, shelters. Journal papers could be written. Grants could be written - if for nothing else than for further study. (Since this forum has a libritarian tinge to it I will add: money is allocated for studies and programs like this right now. The gatekeepers of this money assumedly choose from a field of valid proposals thus will choose to follow this only if it is better than the alternatives.)

You may say: I am not an academic I cannot (1) write a study about this or (2) analyize the number to quantify the study. On the first point, I would recommend you try to talk to academics in related fields. But the fields are complicated and the experts may not know as much as you.

On the second point, I will compute any statistical quantities about your data that you (or they) want. I am a physicist so I can probably compute any quantity in the socail sciences. I will spend the time to do this to the best of my ability as it sounds important to me. I cannot guarentee the statistics will be great (hey, I have 10^20 manganese atoms in my sample, you probably have around 20 to 100 people...) but I will compute whatever is needed for this kind of study.
Honest.

Cheers,

Greg G. Wood
gregory.wood@csun.edu