As modern society transforms and vi

As modern society transforms and video games have become an important part of young people’s activities, parents and educators alike are concerned about the effects video game playing is having on children’s attention spans. Research conducted by Edward Swing and three colleagues set out to study if watching video games causes the same attention problems as has already been proven that watching television does. In middle childhood and late adolescence/early adulthood, past research has shown that frequent television viewing leads to greater difficulty in paying attention because of the rapid changes in focus, thereby harming “children’s abilities to sustain focus on tasks that are not inherently attention grabbing” (p. 215).



The scientists used television viewing and video game playing in four different time sequences to measure differences in attention. They created two groups, middle childhood and late adolescence/early adulthood, to determine the effects of playing video games on attention at different periods in child development. The authors’ hypothesis was that due to a large amount of video game playing and television viewing there would be a resultant increase in attention problems within these age groups. They had not anticipated that this would be worse for males than for females, but indeed it was.



The study participants were middle childhood kids ranging from 6-12 years of age, and late adolescence/early adulthood, which were between 18-32 years with a median age of 19.8 years. The former group consisted of 1323 subjects. The latter group consisted of 210 undergraduate students from a large public research university in the Midwest. The variables were measured in a longitudinal design of 13 months for the middle childhood kids by the teachers at their school at 4 points during that period, whereas the late adolescence/early adulthood portion was conducted during a single time point. The study results showed that a large amount of exposure to video game play and television viewing resulted in an increased attention problem and that “males were more likely than females to experience increased attention problems” (p. 218). I wonder if the underlying mechanism behind why we see males more likely to have higher attention problems than females is because males engage more with video game consoles, especially with fast-action games. The hypothesis was supported by the extensive documentation conducted by parents of the younger age group and self-reported by the college students. I think the researchers would find similar findings in regard to attention problems even if the groups had engaged in interactive gaming consoles, due to the fact they are still exposed to the fast action on the television and in the game itself. Interestingly, the documentation did not note that there was any difference in attention deficiency between the middle childhood kids and the early adulthood group.



My own experiences lend credibility to their hypothesis that extensive video game playing and television viewing leads to attention problems. As a person who does watch a lot of television and plays video games, I find myself uninterested in doing my homework because it is not as stimulating or exciting as when I am more actively engaged with watching a favorite program or a sports video game. I also see this as being true among many of my peers, although we may not suffer from extensive attention deficit such as ADHD.



The study had a few important limitations in that teachers were measuring attention but there may have been other factors contributing to the lack of attention of which they were unaware. Adolescents and young adults had to self-report and they may not have reported accurately. In addition, some children with existing attention problems are likely more attracted to playing video games as it stimulates them. The authors note that “because both studies rely on correlational data rather than randomly assigned treatments, this limits the ability to make causal conclusions” (p. 219). The study also did not account for external variables that may have affected attention such as diet and physical inactivity. It also didn’t show the effect that media exposure could have on academic success as well as job retention in the future in both groups. There should be a separate test done on the reverse effects on limiting the amount of television and video game exposure, to see if there is a positive improvement on attention span and schoolwork. More research needs to be done about what is it within the video games that causes the attention problems: what kinds of rapid scene changes provoke such problems? are there topical kinds of video games (e.g., Grand Theft Auto, Modern Warfare) that are more harmful than others? are there some kinds of games (e.g., golf, baseball) that have less impact on provoking attention problems?

Kết quả (Việt) 1:

Như biến đổi xã hội hiện đại và trò chơi điện tử đã trở thành một phần quan trọng của hoạt động của những người trẻ tuổi, cha mẹ và giáo dục cũng như có liên quan về hiệu ứng video game chơi có kéo dài sự chú ý của trẻ em. Nghiên cứu thực hiện bởi Edward Swing và ba đồng nghiệp đặt ra để nghiên cứu nếu xem trò chơi điện tử gây ra các vấn đề quan tâm tương tự như đã đã được chứng minh rằng xem truyền hình không. Trong giữa thời thơ ấu và tuổi trưởng thành tuổi vị thành niên/đầu cuối, quá khứ nghiên cứu đã chỉ ra rằng xem truyền hình thường xuyên dẫn đến các khó khăn lớn trong việc thanh toán sự chú ý vì những thay đổi nhanh chóng trong tập trung, do đó làm tổn hại đến "khả năng của trẻ em để duy trì tập trung vào công việc mà không phải vốn đã chú ý grabbing" (p. 215). Các nhà khoa học sử dụng truyền hình xem và video game chơi trong bốn trình tự thời gian khác nhau để đo sự khác biệt trong sự chú ý. Họ đã tạo ra hai nhóm, giữa thời thơ ấu và trưởng thành tuổi vị thành niên/đầu cuối, để xác định những ảnh hưởng của chơi trò chơi điện tử trên sự chú ý ở các thời kỳ khác nhau ở trẻ em phát triển. Giả thuyết của tác giả là do một số lượng lớn cho chơi trò chơi video và truyền hình xem có sẽ là một sự gia tăng kết quả trong sự chú ý vấn đề trong các nhóm tuổi. Họ đã không dự đoán rằng nó sẽ là tồi tệ hơn cho nam giới hơn cho phái nữ, nhưng thực sự nó là. The study participants were middle childhood kids ranging from 6-12 years of age, and late adolescence/early adulthood, which were between 18-32 years with a median age of 19.8 years. The former group consisted of 1323 subjects. The latter group consisted of 210 undergraduate students from a large public research university in the Midwest. The variables were measured in a longitudinal design of 13 months for the middle childhood kids by the teachers at their school at 4 points during that period, whereas the late adolescence/early adulthood portion was conducted during a single time point. The study results showed that a large amount of exposure to video game play and television viewing resulted in an increased attention problem and that “males were more likely than females to experience increased attention problems” (p. 218). I wonder if the underlying mechanism behind why we see males more likely to have higher attention problems than females is because males engage more with video game consoles, especially with fast-action games. The hypothesis was supported by the extensive documentation conducted by parents of the younger age group and self-reported by the college students. I think the researchers would find similar findings in regard to attention problems even if the groups had engaged in interactive gaming consoles, due to the fact they are still exposed to the fast action on the television and in the game itself. Interestingly, the documentation did not note that there was any difference in attention deficiency between the middle childhood kids and the early adulthood group. My own experiences lend credibility to their hypothesis that extensive video game playing and television viewing leads to attention problems. As a person who does watch a lot of television and plays video games, I find myself uninterested in doing my homework because it is not as stimulating or exciting as when I am more actively engaged with watching a favorite program or a sports video game. I also see this as being true among many of my peers, although we may not suffer from extensive attention deficit such as ADHD. The study had a few important limitations in that teachers were measuring attention but there may have been other factors contributing to the lack of attention of which they were unaware. Adolescents and young adults had to self-report and they may not have reported accurately. In addition, some children with existing attention problems are likely more attracted to playing video games as it stimulates them. The authors note that “because both studies rely on correlational data rather than randomly assigned treatments, this limits the ability to make causal conclusions” (p. 219). The study also did not account for external variables that may have affected attention such as diet and physical inactivity. It also didn’t show the effect that media exposure could have on academic success as well as job retention in the future in both groups. There should be a separate test done on the reverse effects on limiting the amount of television and video game exposure, to see if there is a positive improvement on attention span and schoolwork. More research needs to be done about what is it within the video games that causes the attention problems: what kinds of rapid scene changes provoke such problems? are there topical kinds of video games (e.g., Grand Theft Auto, Modern Warfare) that are more harmful than others? are there some kinds of games (e.g., golf, baseball) that have less impact on provoking attention problems?