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Daphne Bavelier: Your brain on video games

Daphne Bavelier: Your brain on video games

The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games Is playing video games good or bad for you? It can be both. Video games are frowned upon by parents as time-wasters, and worse, some education experts think that these games corrupt the brain. Playing violent video games are easily blamed by the media and some experts as the reason why some young people become violent or commit extreme anti-social behavior. But many scientists and psychologists find that video games can actually have many benefits – the main one is making kids smart. Video games may actually teach kids high-level thinking skills that they will need in the future. “Video games change your brain,” according to University of Wisconsin psychologist C. Below are the good and bad effects of video games – their benefits and disadvantages, according to researchers and child experts: The Benefits: Positive Effects of Video Games When your child plays video games, it gives his brain a real workout. Quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions. Other Benefits of Video Games:

Science & Environment - Why video games may be good for you Games have long been accused of making players violent, but evidence has been building over the years that they can have positive effects. Scientists say they are not only understanding why, but they also trying to put these observations to the test. The spreadsheet was seven feet long. Printed in nine-point font were the names of the perpetrators of mass killings, the models of weapons each had used, and the number of victims. It took only a few hours for the authorities to link the massacre to Lanza’s playing of violent video games. Lanza's shooting spree was just the latest of a long list of violent crimes that have blamed on video games. A growing body of research is showing the flip side, though – video games can help people see better, learn more quickly, develop greater mental focus, become more spatially aware, estimate more accurately, and multitask more effectively. Douglas Gentile at Iowa State University, US, agrees. Multi-level field Was this cause or effect, though?

Social Innovation - Act You're new to social innovation. You need inspiration. Search for a hero online. Here are a few places to start your search. Shadowing a hero means keeping up with their latest ideas and projects. Friend your target on Facebook, if you can find them! 3.1 Million Copies Of Halo 4 Have Been Sold On Launch Day! Advertisements When you’re living off a franchise as big, a name as pivotal, and an anticipation level as colossal as that of Halo 4′s, you expect sales figures to be pretty impressive. One of the first titles to release on the original Xbox, the Halo series has maintained its momentum, and so much so in fact, that it managed to shift an unbelievable 3.1 million units in its first day alone. Microsoft has been doing everything it can to gear Xbox 360 users up for this week, and all the teasers and tantalizing trailers appear to have paid off. In passing the 3 million mark, the Redmond company has surpassed first-day sales numbers of any prior edition of Halo, which is no mean feat considering the level of doubt as to whether Halo 4 would still continue to capture the imagination post-Bungie. Of course, while the numbers are great, they don’t quite measure up to the undisputed King of the first-person shooter. (via VGChartz)

Video Games Boost Brain Power, Multitasking Skills hide captionIn this video game image from Call of Duty: Black Ops, special forces agents pilot a gunship up the Mekong River. Scientists say immersion games like this one may develop certain parts of kids' brains. Activision via AP Parents, the next time you fret that your child is wasting too much time playing video games, consider new research suggesting that video gaming may have real-world benefits for your child's developing brain. Daphne Bavelier is professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. Her studies show that video gamers show improved skills in vision, attention and certain aspects of cognition. Seeing Shades Of Gray Vision, for example, is improved in gamers. hide captionA test subject in cognitive scientist Daphne Bavelier's study tries to follow the direction of moving dots on a computer screen. J. A test subject in cognitive scientist Daphne Bavelier's study tries to follow the direction of moving dots on a computer screen. Laser Focus

10 | March | 2012 | phillipshakesbymasters I have reached an exciting stage of my application, I have conducted a large amount of research into the application content, target audience, comparative applications and the technical knowledge required to create the application. I will continue to look for new options and possibilities as I go along but I feel I am now in a good position to move forward into the advanced planning stages before I start development. As a designer I try to follow a design process, the design process that I am using can be seen below: Designers use design processes in their work but designers often tailor the process to suit them; The Design Council says “Different designers manage the process of design in different ways.” During research in 2005 The Design Council found similarities in the approaches of designers within eleven different prominent design companies and from this research they produced a graphical representation of the design process, see below: Discover Define Develop Deliver

Time spent gaming on the rise - NPD Gamers are spending more and more time with their home consoles and less on their portable systems, according to the market research firm NPD Group. A survey conducted by the firm concluded that gamers over the age of 2 in the United States spent over 13 hours playing video games each week, up from 12.3 hours per week for the previous year. The uptick is based on a January 2010 online survey that garnered 18,872 responses. The study also found that hours spent playing console games spiked the most dramatically, with the average time spent playing vaulting 9 percent from the year prior. According to the survey, the "extreme gamer" classification saw its weekly average hours spent playing games rise from nearly 40 to more than 48. Playing video games to raise millions for charity This year, video gamers doing the Extra Life marathon will play for 25 hours as clocks roll back for fall. Gamers can raise money by playing for more than 24 hours on November 2Extra Life has raised more than $4 million since its start in 2008The charity Child's Play marks 10 years of gamers giving back.Humble Bundle gives gamers the choice to pay more to help charities (CNN) -- On November 2 you can help raise millions of dollars for sick children by sitting on the sofa and playing video games. Just like the weekend athletes who collect donations from family and friends for every mile they race in a charity run, thousands of gamers will be enlisting their networks to support them in a marathon of a completely different sort. This novel fund raising idea is sponsored by Extra Life, which is now a part of the nonprofit Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Would anyone really support gamers spending an entire day just playing? "We are some of the most connected people on the planet.

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