Video Game Structure Preferences, Flow, and Dreams

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Video Game Structure Preferences, Flow, and Dreams

• Jayne Gackenbach Steve Reiter
• Grant MacEwan College University of Alberta

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the
International Association for the Study of
Dreams, Bridgewatch, MA, June 2006
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Technology and Cognition

• Broadly conceptualize technology
• building of artifacts or procedures tools- to
  help people accomplish their goals
• Long influence on human development.
• Whats commonplace to one generation were created
  through a great intellectual struggle by the
  previous generation.
• Tool use is both amplifier of human action and
  transformative of human mind.
• Video gaming
• Actively navigate through representational
  space
• To date media exposure has been largely a
  passive, observer experience

Sternberg and Preiss (2005). Intelligence and
Technology The Impact of Tools on the Nature and
Development of Human Abilities
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Video Game Play Consciousness

• Related research
• Attention
• Presence
• Psychological Absorption
• Flow

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Previous Research

• Gackenbach, in press with Dreaming
• Face to face in class data collection
• High video game players reported more lucid,
  observer and control dreams
• Controlled for dream recall and motion sickness
• No differences in short mystical scale or
  specific experiences associated with
  consciousness development
• Online data collection
• No video game player differences for dream type
• Ceiling effect explained sample difference
• No differences self-transcendence or specific
  experiences associated with consciousness
  development

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Online Study Nov 21, 2005 to April 30, 2006

• Replications
• PART 1. Demographics
• PART 2A. Video Games Habits/Experiences
• PART 2B. types of video games
• PART 3. Dream Experiences
• PART 4. States of Consciousness
  Habits/Experiences
• New Scales
• PART 5. Structural Characteristics of Video Games
  Scale
• PART 6. Video Game Play and Flow Scale
• PART 7. Video Game Performance (Pacman)

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Sample Characteristics

• Average age - 23.7 years (12 to 60)
• Education first two years of college
• 287 of 464 respondents listed some college major
• 62 Psychology majors
• 19 in social sciences

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before kindergarten 9 kindergarten to grade 1
8 grade 2 to grade 4 7 grade 5 to grade 6
6 junior high school 5 high school 4 young
adulthood/post secondary school 3 middle
adulthood (30 to 50 years old) 2 late
adulthood (over 50) 1 never played 0
Not use in defining groups
ns
50 to 100
every day 11 4 to 6 days/week 10 1 to 3
days/week 9 three times/month 8 twice a month
7 once a month 6
times/year 4 4 to 6 times/year 3 1 to 3
times/year 2
6 to 10
2 to 4 hrs

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Video Game Performance

• Pacman game at end of questionnaire
• No difference in overall play performance as a
  function of video game play group
• Three levels
• Of 263 Ss in hi/lo thirds groups only 71 played
  first level
• Of those only 31 played second level
• Of those only 17 played third level
• High Video Game Play group more likely to play
  all three levels

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No difference between groups on age and education
X2(1)39.899, p
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Range 1-4
ns
ns
Range 1-7
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Online Total Sample Differences

• 2004/2005
• No dream/wake differences
• explained as ceiling effect relative to classroom
  sample
• Older
• More educated
• Started later
• Peaked later
• Play with other more
• Play more violent games
• More motion sickness

• 2005/2006
• Many dream/wake differences
• Younger
• Less educated
• Started younger (2 years)
• Peaked younger (1 year)
• Play alone more
• Play less violent games
• Less motion sickness

Dream type differences as a function of video
game play were found for face to face classroom
students in 2004/2005 study
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Flow During Play
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(addiction)
Collapse subscales
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Means of Flow/addiction Subscales

• types of flow scales (flow and addiction)
• mean flow scores for each type of scale were
  calculated and a video game group ANCOVAs with
  sex and motion sickness controlled
• group differences, flow F(3,202) 2.932, paddiction F(3,202) 3.844, p
• High Low on Flow
• Low High on addiction subscale

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Low Video Game Players
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High Video Game Players
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Video Game Structure Preferences Scale
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Flow Subscales and Structure Factor Scores Factor
Analysis
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ns
ns
ns
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Structure and Consciousness

• To determine if there was a relationship for
  these high and low gamers between the various
  consciousness and structure variables a factor
  analysis was computed. Although there were some
  minor association between groups of variables
  generally, both for the video game groups used in
  all other analyses or the entire sample,
• very few associations between structure and
  consciousness reports variables.
• consciousness experiences of a variety of sorts
  seem to be an individual difference variable that
  occurs across game structure.

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2006 Gamer Interviews (n27)

• Play video games on average several times a week
• Typical playing session more than 2 hours
• Been playing video games since before grade three
• Played 50 or more video games over your lifetime

Gackenbach, March/April 2006
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2006 Gamer Interviews

• Lucid Dreams - Common
• Dont find it remarkable
• Dont think to do anything with it when in the
  dream
• Controlling Dreams - Never
• Just their dream self
• Observing Dreams - Common
• Flip in and out of first and third person
• Not the calm detachment of witnessing

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2006 Gamer Interviews

• Consciousness Experiences
• Very high on absorption
• Loss of time
• Dont realize anyone else there
• Rare motion sickness
• Identify with game character (most are role
  playing gamers)
• Some still playing the game when leave the game
  environment

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Ermi Mayra, 2005