Science Shorts: Video games in research (Feb. 2025)
Video game learning sandwich!
I recently attended a free webinar called Game-Based Learning ROI: Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Assess Impact hosted by Ellen Burns-Johnson, VP of Learning Strategy at ELB Learning (that is a mouthful!). The webinar renewed my belief in the information about video games I’m sharing with you all, especially after seeing the engagement and enthusiasm of everyone in attendance. So, this month’s Science Shorts will have a heavy focus on learning, but first:
One of the first video game newsletters I subscribed to,
covers the latest in the indie game space. Also, what a great name for a publication! There are a lot of great indie games that have made it onto my radar, thanks to coverage by Pixels for Breakfast. Make sure you check out the publication!
TL;DR
Let’s face it, university/college classes aren’t exactly fun. Unless you were a lucky nursing student in Norway that went through a game-based learning program. These students outperformed those who received traditional (boring) teaching.
There is a general perception that too much screen time, including playing video games, will melt brain cells. However, a long-term analysis showed that mobile device usage and playing video games were associated with lower risks of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. The takeaway? PLAY VIDEO GAMES!
The video game sandwich ends with a study about player freedom and choice in games designed for learning. Unlike the first study, greater freedom and choice in the game didn’t lead to better grades, but it did increase the players’ enjoyment of and motivation to play.
Video game learning for better nurses
Link to article: https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-024-06531-7
Title: Game-thinking; utilizing serious games and gamification in nursing education – a systematic review and meta-analysis
I was lucky enough to be able to afford a post-secondary education, most of which were spent buried in textbooks, journal articles, and wherever I could find it, free food. But there is a growing push to move away from traditional paper-based teaching and use other methods of teaching, including video games.
Researchers in Norway selected 70 studies spanning over 8300 people to determine the effectiveness of gamification and serious games for training nurses1. According to the researchers, gamified learning and serious games were associated with better grades during nursing school.
When they broke down the grades into knowledge and skills, they found that game-based learning had a much bigger effect on knowledge performance than skills performance.
Learning using games is like playing an extraction looter-shooter: you warp into the map not knowing what to expect (new student phase), but you slowly start to figure out where all the good loot is (learning phase), until you finally get good enough to extract your loot (knowledge transfer phase). Nursing students are already looting their way to more knowledge!
Long-term device use doesn’t melt your brain
Link to article: https://www.jmir.org/2025/1/e59663
Title: Long-Term Impact of Using Mobile Phones and Playing Computer Games on the Brain Structure and the Risk of Neurodegenerative Diseases: Large Population-Based Study
I've always been told that too much screen time (including playing video games) would melt my brain cells. But is there a link between screen time and how much your brain is affected, specifically by neurodegenerative conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's disease?
Over 500000 people were studied in this massive study, looking at their screen use habits and whether they were susceptible to dementia, Alzheimer's disease, parkinsonism, and Parkinson’s disease.
Surprisingly, people who had been using mobile devices for more than 2 years had a lower risk of dementia compared to those who had never used a mobile device at least once a week. Using mobile devices for 5-8 years was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease.
On the video game front, participants who played had a lower risk of parkinsonism and Parkinson disease compared to those who never or rarely played video games. When the researchers excluded those who developed parkinsonism or Parkinson’s disease within 5 years of the baseline measurement, this lower risk becomes non-significant (statistically). But its still a compelling result.
Does that mean we should stay glued to our devices? Probably not, as there may be other detrimental effects of staring at the screen for too long. But, using mobile devices and playing games doesn't seem to melt our brain cells. In fact, brain structure scans (also this study) revealed that lengthy mobile device use led to an improvement of how the brain is structured.
There's a lot to unpack here and I may turn this into a full blown post; but for now, rest assured that playing games or using a phone over many years is not as detrimental as we’ve been led to believe.
Freedom of choice in serious games
Link to article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875952124001228
Title: Exploring player agency in educational video games
To complete the learning-from-video-games sandwich, this next study looked at how player freedom and choice in video games affect learning outcomes, game enjoyment, and motivation to learn.
The educational video game was a coding game specifically developed for this study. Players had to answer questions correctly to progress through the game, and their performance was measured as learning outcomes. Surprisingly, the researchers found that giving players the freedom to choose when they answered these questions had no bearing on their performance: those that were given a choice performed equally well compared to those who didn’t have a choice.
But as you may have guessed, this freedom to choose did affect the players’ enjoyment of and motivation to continue playing the game.
Would the results be different if the learning wasn’t about coding but something else entirely? It’s certainly possible. It’s also possible that over a longer period of time, the greater enjoyment and motivation experienced through freedom of choice could lead to differences in learning outcomes. Some players might stop playing the game if the game didn’t give them a sense of freedom.
One day, video games or game-based learning will find its way into mainstream teaching. When that day comes, I’ll happily go back to school (well…maybe not).
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It’s worth noting the difference between gamification and serious games. Gamification refers to the use of game elements (like scores, rewards, and leaderboards) in an otherwise non-game situation, which in this case, is nursing education. Serious games are games developed specifically to teach something or train a skill.
The research about screen time is interesting. I'm curious whether they looked at what people were doing on their devices and what the relative lengths were. I'm also wondering if at some point we'll find a link between brain diseases and lengthy screen time due to poor sleep?