Category: Video Games

Scientists Debunk the IQ Myth: Notion of Measuring One’s Intelligence Quotient by Singular, Standardized Test Is Highly Misleading

On By A.P.In Adam Hampshire, Adrian M. Owen, aging, Anxiety, attention, Canada, intelligence, IQ, memory, Neuron, Neuropsychiatric Disease, planning, reasoning, Roger Highfield, Science, Science Museum Group, The Brain, United Kingdom, Video Games, Western's Brain and Mind InstituteLeave a comment

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After conducting the largest online intelligence study on record, a Western University-led research team has concluded that the notion of measuring one’s intelligence quotient or IQ by a singular, standardized test is highly misleading.

The findings from the landmark study, which included more than 100,000 participants, were published Dec. 19 in the journal Neuron. The article, “Fractionating human intelligence,” was written by Adrian M. Owen and Adam Hampshire from Western’s Brain and Mind Institute (London, Canada) and Roger Highfield, Director of External Affairs, Science Museum Group (London, U.K).

Utilizing an online study open to anyone, anywhere in the world, the researchers asked respondents to complete 12 cognitive tests tapping memory, reasoning, attention and planning abilities, as well as a survey about their background and lifestyle habits.

“The uptake was astonishing,” says Owen, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging and senior investigator on the project. “We expected a few hundred responses, but thousands and thousands of people took part, including people of all ages, cultures and creeds from every corner of the world.”

The results showed that when a wide range of cognitive abilities are explored, the observed variations in performance can only be explained with at least three distinct components: short-term memory, reasoning and a verbal component.

No one component, or IQ, explained everything. Furthermore, the scientists used a brain scanning technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to show that these differences in cognitive ability map onto distinct circuits in the brain.

With so many respondents, the results also provided a wealth of new information about how factors such as age, gender and the tendency to play computer games influence our brain function.

“Regular brain training didn’t help people’s cognitive performance at all yet aging had a profound negative effect on both memory and reasoning abilities,” says Owen.

Hampshire adds, “Intriguingly, people who regularly played computer games did perform significantly better in terms of both reasoning and short-term memory. And smokers performed poorly on the short-term memory and the verbal factors, while people who frequently suffer from anxiety performed badly on the short-term memory factor in particular.”

1.Adam Hampshire, Roger R. Highfield, Beth L. Parkin, Adrian M. Owen. Fractionating Human Intelligence. Neuron, 2012; 76 (6): 1225 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.06.022

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121219133334.htm

23 Year Old College Student Hit by SUV While Playing Real-Life Frogger Game

On By A.P.In Accidents, Frogger, Stupidity, Video GamesLeave a comment

Clemson police said a game ended up with a 23-year-old man struck by an SUV.
Emergency crews were called to the intersection of Highway 123 and College Avenue at about 9 p.m. Monday.
Clemson police Chief Jimmy Dixon said the injured man was taken Anderson Memorial Hospital by Pickens County EMS.
Investigators said they later determined that the man and his friends were talking about playing a game known as “Frogger.”
Frogger is an arcade game that was introduced in 1981. Many versions of the game can be found on Internet game sites. In the game, players move frogs through traffic on a busy road and through a river filled with hazards.
Police said before he was hit, the 23-year-old yelled “go” and darted into oncoming traffic where he was struck by a 2010 Lexus SUV. 
At last check, the man was in stable condition at the hospital. No charges are expected against the driver.
Police said that the man is not a Clemson student. His name has not been released.Read more: http://www.wyff4.com/news/26295132/detail.html#ixzz1nVIFCsqc

Man Spends $16,000 on Virtual Sword

On By A.P.In Video GamesLeave a comment

 

A man in China recently spent $16,000 for a virtual sword on a game that has not even been released yet.

“Age of Wulin,” by California-based company Snail Games, has not even been released on mainland China but that isn’t stopping some from spending serious cash on the game.

The game is a role-playing one that is set in ancient China and is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or better known as MMORPGs.

The man is not alone in his purchases. A study released earlier in the year valued the virtual economy for MMORPGs is $3 billion.