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Video Games Can Make Us More Creative
FiReaNGeL commends to us a study by Penn State researchers looking at the effect of video game play on creativity. "[Subjects] were asked to play a popular video game, Dance Dance Revolution, at various levels of complexity. The students took a standard creativity test after playing. The researchers also took readings of the players' skin conductance and asked players if they were feeling either positive or negative after the game ... [T]he study appears to indicate that after playing the game, happy or sad people are most creative, while angry or relaxed people are not. The findings suggest that either high or low arousal is key to creativity. In other words, medium amounts of arousal are not conducive to creativity."
I am skeptical about the study as well. Some people are inherently more emotional and tend to be more creative (in the traditional sense). Probably the reason is that it is natural for them to be sad or excited over little things, like winning/losing a game of DDR.
I would say even more questionable is the last part, that findings suggest that high or low arousal is key to creativity. What do they mean by arousal? I'd saying being angry is definitely one form of it. If anything, I'd say the finding suggest the exact opposite, that medium amounts of arousal are optimal: not angry, yet not relaxed.
Wikipedia agrees with me: "The Yerkes-Dodson Law states that there is a relationship between arousal and task performance, essentially arguing that there is an optimal level of arousal for performance, and too little or too much arousal can adversely affect task performance." (Considering that task performance would clearly encompass creative task performance as well)
Video games, they claim, spark "positive social traits, such as creativity."
How would this compare to dancing with another person?
For socially adept, happy, creative people, dance with another human, not a video game. Like these people here, here, here, and here.
Yes, it would mean you'd have to stop playing with your Wii ... for at least a little while.
Well, there IS a difference between intelligence and creativity, but if you think about it, there probably isn't a link between any of these things and video games. I haven't met any fuming angry people who I saw at their height of creativity. Nothing new.
Also, although I run the risk of sounding arrogant, I do consider myself to be fairly intelligent. However, I play video games nearly every day. I know a lot of people who don't really show that they are intelligent (whether or not they really are), and they do the same. I just don't think that there is a "link" or a "relationship" between games and something.
Video games are like a tool that you can use. Not everyone receives the same effects from it.