Tuesday, May 21, 2013

long term enjoyment

Just read a paper on "The Effect of Exergaming on Vascular Function in Children*". In this paper, they also assessed level of enjoyment with PACES questionnaire within Hi-intensity and Low-intensity Exergaming. Having relatively same results for both conditions, authors concluded that children enjoyed them the same.
I believe, this sense of achieving and accomplishing is illusory. I believe long term considerations of enjoyment will show different results.


*: Andrew Mills, Michael Rosenberg, Gareth Stratton, Howard H. Carter, Angela L. Spence, Christopher J.A. Pugh, Daniel J. Green, Louise H. Naylor, The Effect of Exergaming on Vascular Function in Children, The Journal of Pediatrics. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022347613003958)

Thursday, May 16, 2013

learning or fitness

I am reading a paper on Active Learning (1). In that study, they are using active pedaling to control a mouse in which eventually helps them learn about nutritional concepts. Challenging tasks results in continued persistence, allows players to use different strategies while having greater interest for performing the given task better (2). However, it’s not clear whether when the tasks are completed successfully, there would be any interests towards continuing them or not. This happens frequently during Exergames as they have lots of repetitive movements. So maybe this is the reason why they are interesting for a short period and after sometimes it gets boring.

(1): Mellecker, R. R., Witherspoon, L., & Watterson, T. (2013). Active Learning: Educational Experiences Enhanced Through Technology-Driven Active Game Play. The Journal of Educational Research, null-null.

(2): Turner, Julianne C. (1995). The influence of classroom contexts on young children's motivation for literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(3), 410.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

not stimulus as they seem

Based on a study by Owens et al. (2011)*, participation is physical activity using active video games, mostly works for children and not for adults. According to their low subject study, levels of physical activity in families owning Nintendo Wii was compared. Children were displaying a significant higher levels of physical activity compared to adults in which was declined from the first 6 weeks of playing with the device to the second week (from 21.5 +/- 9.0 min.d(-1) to 3.9 +/- 4.0 min.d(-1)).
Most measures of health-related fitness in their exploratory study remained unchanged after 3 months of home use of the device. Promoting these devices may not be sufficient stimuli for fitness changes.

*: Owens, Scott G., Garner, John C., III, Loftin, J. Mark, van Blerk, Natalie, & Ermin, Kevser. (2011). CHANGES IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND FITNESS AFTER 3 MONTHS OF HOME WII FIT (TM) USE. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(11), 3191-3197. 

Friday, May 10, 2013

More than a game

"More Than a Game: Friendship Relational Maintenance and Attitudes Toward Xbox LIVE Communication"

An empirical investigation of relational maintenance and closeness between friends who communicate via Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service.