Running head: SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY FINAL PAPER

Scientific Inquiry Final Paper

Angelene Alexander
Ivy Tech Community College

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY FINAL PAPER

With technology taking over the world and video game players spending a collective
billions of dollars on the new consoles and games, it is obvious that gaming is a large part of the
technological industry. Not only in the industry, but in peoples livesvideo games are very
important to a lot of people. There have been many questions that people on the playing side and
the science side have been asking, such as, how are video games affecting the players minds and
bodies? Are they helpful or hurtful? This is what my group was thinking as we came up with our
first round of inquiry. We know so many people who play video games; we wondered if there
was a way to find out if there was some aspect it actually did benefit to play video games, which
led to our first question.
Question:
How does the number of hours per week playing video games affect a persons reaction time
based on our chosen visual and audio tests?
Claim:
The frequent players would have the fastest reaction time on both visual and audio tests.
For this first round, weve define frequent players as players who spend 4-9 hours a
week playing video games. The players who play less, at only 3 or less hours a week, are labeled
as occasional players. Players who play 10 hours or more are labeled as avid players.
Reaction time has been defined as time required for a subject to initiate a prearranged response
to a defined stimulus. Here is what we used to begin our first test.
Materials:
Laptop computer, a visual reaction test found online at
http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime, an audio reaction test found online at
http://cognitivefun.net/test/16, one table to work at with four chairs, printer, 3-4 pens, calculator

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for averaging, and 12 surveys created by us. Below is an example of the video game survey we
used.
Video Game Survey
What is your age? _______________
Are you male or female? _____________
How many hours a week do you play video games of any kind? This includes TV systems and cell phones.

3 hours or less

4 - 9 hours

10 hours or more

What type of video game system do you play on?

XBOX

PlayStation

iPad or other tablet

Wii

Cell phone game

Laptop or desktop computer game

Handheld device

What genre of video games do you play?

First Person Shooter

Platform

Role Playing games

Simulations

Strategy

Sports

Puzzle Games

Fighting

Dancing

Are you left handed or right handed? ___________

At what age did you start playing video games? ____________

Procedure:
1. Create and print out 12 surveys to hand out to people.
2. Find both visual and audio reaction tests online, and pull up in two different tabs on
computer.
3. Find and pass out surveys to 4 people per group (avid, frequent, occasional,) 2 males and
2 females.
4. Have each person take visual and audio reaction test for 5 trials, while recording each
trial time on the back of the survey for that person.
5. Record all reaction times on data table that is separated by visual and audio, and within
those two groups, separate further by avid, frequent, and occasional players.
6. Find the average per group by adding each number in that group, and dividing that sum
by the number of total artifacts that were added together.
a. Example: Add 300, 400, 350, and 450. Divide that sum by 4, because there were
four total numbers added together.
7. See which groups average was faster in both the audio and visual categories.

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Here is our data table for round one.

VISUAL
All Avid
381.8
394
434.4
435.6
411.45

AUDIO
All
Frequent
405.6
416.6
423
449.8
423.75

All
Occasional
392.8
420.4
452.6
508.6
443.6

All Avid
288
332.8
336.4
373.4
332.65

All
Frequent
304.8
312.6
367.2
378.8
340.85

All
Occasional
265.6
270
347
376.4
314.75

For the visual reaction test, the avid players had the fastest reaction time. For the audio reaction
test, the occasional players had the fastest reaction time. Our initial claim that the frequent
players would have fastest reaction times was not supported based on the data we received.
The main concept for this round is sensory perception, or, neurophysiological processing
of the stimuli in the world. The body processes 5 main senses: touching, hearing, seeing,
smelling, and tasting. The main senses our experiment deals with are hearing and seeing,
although all of the senses are being used at one time. These are just the specific two we are
testing. When the ear, mouth, eyes, etc. are perceiving a certain sense, it goes through a number
of different transformations throughout the body until it gets officially processed in the brain, and
it is considered processed. Each type of sense gets transferred very differently and at different
rates. After the brain has processed the stimuli, it goes through storage. This is when the
information is received in memory and the brain is manipulating it to fit into our schemas. After
this occurs, the brain creates output, or in case of the experiment, this is the response or
reaction that is being tested (McLeod, 2008).
People who play video games, especially as much as 10 or more hours a week, get a lot
of practice working these senses in a concentrated manner. Researchers have been studying the
potential benefits of video games for quite some time, and many positive conclusions have been

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made. researchers found that video game players develop a heightened sensitivity to what is
going on around themimproves a wide variety of general skills that can help with everyday
activities like multitasking, driving ("Video Games Lead to Faster Decisions That Are No
Less Accurate." 2010). Avid gamers have the ability to react faster to every day stimuli, which is
why their times were so low on our visual reaction test.
For the audio test however, the occasional players scored the best. This is definitely not
the result we were expecting to get. The avid players had the second best result. But for some
reason, occasional did the best. When it comes to processing hearing versus processing vision, an
auditory stimuli takes a shorter time to reach the brain than a visual stimuli. Therefore auditory
stimuli gets processed quicker, and a response to it is quicker than visual (Shelton, 2010). Sound
waves first reach the ear, where the ear is shaped to flow the waves towards the ear drum.
Next, the waves then go through the auditory canal. Sound goes through the middle ear, then the
inner ear, where electrical impulses are created in order to be sent to the brain (Shah, 2013).
There are more steps in processing and transferring the data derived from visual stimuli.
First, light is gathered into the eye. It is sent to the back of the eye where it is then flipped and
sent through the optic nerve, and it is transmitted into impulses that the brain can receive
(Vision). Since this is the case for most humans who are able to see and hear standardly
(without any hearing or seeing disabilities,) we can see that audio stimuli is perceived quicker in
most situations for most people, and video games arent needed to heighten this ability.
Occasional players might not receive as much practice as avid video gamers, but the brain is
set up for them to process sound more rapidly anyway.
For the second round of our inquiry, we wondered if the type of video game would have
an impact on gamers reaction times. Here is what we have for round two.

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Question:
How does playing a strategy game versus playing a first person shooter game affect reaction time
of a person who plays for four or more hours a week?
Claim:
Gamers who play mainly first person shooter games would have a faster reaction time than
gamers who play mainly strategy games.
Materials:
Laptop computer, a visual reaction test found from round one, an audio reaction test found from
round one, one table to work at with four chairs, 3-4 pens, printer, calculator for averaging, and
12 different surveys created by us. Below is an example of the other video game survey we used
for the second round.
Video Game Survey
What is your age? _______________
Are you male or female? _____________
How many hours a week do you play video games of any kind? This includes TV systems and cell phones.
4 - 9 hours

10 hours or more

What type of video game system do you play on?

XBOX

PlayStation

iPad or other tablet

Wii

Cell phone game

Laptop or desktop computer game

Handheld device

What genre of video games do you play?

First Person Shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre centered on gun and
projectile weapon-based combat through a first-person perspective; that is, the player experiences the action
through the eyes of the protagonist.
Examples: Halo, Call of Duty, Battlefield
Strategy A strategy game or strategic game is a game (e.g. video or board game) in which the players'
uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome.
Examples: Plants vs. Zombies, Toy Soldiers, Civilization V

Procedure:
1. Create and print the 12 surveys.

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2. Find 6 people who play mostly first person shooter games, and pass out surveys for them
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

to take.
Find 6 people who play mostly strategy games, and pass out surveys for them to take.
Have each person take the audio reaction test 5 times.
Record all times on back of survey for that person.
Have each person take visual reaction test 5 times.
Record all times on back of survey for that person.
Record all data on data table that is separated into visual times and audio times, while

also being separated into shooter times and strategy times.

9. Find averages for each category and record by repeating step 6 from round one.
This is all the recorded data we gathered from round two.
Visual
SHOOTER
282.8
313.4
315.4
329.6
350.2
410
333.6

STRATEGY
301.2
315
328.2
356.2
363.2
435.6
349.9

Audio
SHOOTER
204
218
219
220
257
264
230.3

STRATEGY
208
223
244
264
327
333
266.5

As shown above, the players who played first person shooter games had lower timed averages
for both visual and audio tests than players who played strategy games. They had quicker
reaction times, and therefore, our claim was supported by our data.
The main concept for round two is the fight or flight response. This bodily reaction is
caused by the nervous systems response to stress. When the body and mind feel stressed, or
there is a perceived threat, this is when the fight or flight response come into play. The fight or
flight response releases adrenaline in the body which raises blood pressure, increases heart-rate,
dilates eyes, and automatically turns fat into working energy so a person or animal can either
fight or get away in a dangerous situation. It increases speed, agility, and strength (Edgar, 2014).

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There doesnt have to be an actual risk, but the anxiety from playing a tense video can
cause the same bodily reactions as real-world dangers. While playing a first person shooter
game, it heavily requires attention and sensing the noises and sights around the character. Our
brain has a way of connecting the game to the real life feelings. Mirror neurons are neurons in
certain regions of the brain that are active when an animal performs an action, or observes
another individual performing that same action (Tajerian). Video game companies build upon
this concept to create a virtual world that feels real to players, and that touches on their real
senses so they can feel like they are really in the game. Moving in a three dimensional space is
likely to trigger spatial orientation mirror neurons (Tajerian). People playing these games are
usually tensed and stressed, in the same manner of a real threat, but not to the extent of a real life
or death situation. These triggers release adrenaline anyway, causing the same physical reactions,
which increases response time to the stimuli in the video game and in other real life situations, or
in this case, the reaction time tests our group provided to the subjects.
Strategy games do not have the same type of stress as a first person shooter game. In
these games, its similar to a puzzle, and there is no perceived threat, whether there is stress or
not. They require thoughtful, step-by-step actions that ultimately will affect the overall outcome
of a game, not life or death, hasty reactions. This can explain why people who play strategy
games do not have as fast of a reaction time as the people who play first person shooter games.
Strategy gamers do not use these think-fast reactions as much as the other category does.
People who constantly play games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, or even horror games like Silent
Hill and Fear, are constantly trying to be aware of their surroundings and not get hurt in the video
game. This causes them to have faster reaction times due to the extra release of adrenaline.

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This brings our group to round three. When doing all of our research and talking to the
people taking the survey, we realized that people get so focused on their video games that they
learn to tune everything out. Or, at least, theyd like to. This poses the idea of how distractions
affect their gaming, and leads to the question for round three.
Question:
How do visual and auditory distractions affect a video gamers reaction time for a person who
plays four or more hours a week?
Claim:
Players taking the test will have a slower reaction time while we are adding the distractions.
Materials:
Laptop computer, a visual reaction test found from round one, an audio reaction test found from
round one, one table to work at with four chairs, a pen, a piece of paper, calculator for averaging,
a ball, and any book or reading material to read from.
Procedure:
1. Find ten people who play any form of video games for four hours or more a week.
2. Have the first person begin audio reaction test.
3. When they begin, have one person reading next to them from chosen reading material.
They should do 5 trials of the audio test.
4. Have another person recording their times on a piece of paper.
5. Once finished, have them begin visual reaction test.
6. Have two people pass a ball back and forth in front of them and the computer. The
subject should complete 5 trials of this test also.
7. Have another person record their times on a piece of paper.
8. Repeat steps 2-7 for each person.
9. Once completed average all times for audio test.
10. Average all times for visual test.
11. Record numbers on data table.
This is the table of data we received from round three.

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Times from 4+ gamers from Round 1
VISUAL
381.8
405.6
394
416.6
434.4
423
435.6
449.8
Average:
With Distraction
VISUAL
381
376.6
324
375.8
326.4
Average:

417.6

10

AUDIO
288
333
336
373

305
313
337
379

Average:

333

AUDIO
334.8
363.4
342.2
327.4
544.6
369.62

283.8
394.8
323
243.2
189.8
Average:

277.2
181.2
221.8
254.8
252.8
262.24

On this data table, we included the numbers from round one in order to compare reaction times
from non-distracted players to the distracted players. For the visual and audio portion of the
reaction test, the distracted players actually had faster reaction times than the non-distracted
players, contrary to our initial claim. So after doing this test, it is clear that our claim is not
supported. I was quite shocked by the fact that our claim was wrong. I wasnt sure how being
distracted could help improve reaction time. The main concept for this round is suppression of
irrelevant information.
The brain is truly amazing in its ability to make connections and build upon those
synapses that occur every second of our lives. However, the brain has its limitation, which
include attention, working memory, processing speed, and sensitivity to interference
(Staroversky, 2013). Interference includes distractions, which are irrelevant. Most other
interruptions cause multi-tasking, which isnt the same as distractions. This is where the mind is

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11

focused on two separate things. People have trained their minds to ignore irrelevant information,
which in our experiment, was the ball tossing and book reading.
Another example is the idea that people can have conversations at restaurants while other
people are talking as well. Because everyone in the restaurant is speaking, one would think it
would cause an inability to focus on ones own conversation. But that isnt the case; it gets tuned
out by the brain. Our distractions werent important enough to cause a break in their
concentration, so it slowly got pushed out of their concentration until it was officially tuned out.
Our ability to focus attention on task-relevant information and ignore distractions is reflected by
differential enhancement and suppression of neural activity in sensory cortex (Zanto, 2009). For
information to make an impact on the reaction times of our subjects, the information would have
to be relevant to them or the task they are performing. Only then will their brain allow an
enhancement of the ability to multitask and possibly get a slower reaction time.
Between our groups own research and the findings of others test or articles, it shows that
video games can obviously play a difference in peoples reaction speed and take a toll on their
adrenaline being released in their body. Although the people, places, and things are not real in
video games, our brain has a way of connecting information in the game to the real-world, where
it can make a big impact on their day-to-day abilities to concentrate and response quickly to
stimuli. This can lead to other questions, such as who is at a better chance of video games
affecting them. For example, females or children could have a better reaction time than adults
and males. Another factor that could change the results is whether playing a virtual realty game
could raise the chance of getting faster times. Virtual reality games can include the headsets that
are worn and a persons bodily movements are registered as the characters bodily movements in

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a game. This would be a lot more lifelike and could change the outcome. Overall, there are so
many factors that can affect a persons ability to enhance their reaction times or hurt them.

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